Between Love and Hate
by Allura01
Summary: It's AC200, all the pilots have drifted their separate ways and life for Relena doesn't seem like it could get much worse. So when Quatre decides to have a ‘get together’ for all his friends, she decides to go. But that means seeing Heero again...
1. Prologue

**Between Love and Hate**

Disclaimer: pfft... Don't own Gundam Wing...

**Prologue: AC197 – Peacecraft Mansion**

"Heero Yuy, get out of my way!" Relena yelled at the young man who was blocking her only exit from the office room. His unruly brown hair fell across his eyes as he avoided her gaze.

"No Relena. I can't let you leave yet. Zechs' orders." Heero replied stoically. His prussian blue eyes, stared at her expressionlessly.

"Stuff Zechs' orders. I need out Heero. NOW!" Relena screamed at her bodyguard. She ran her pale hands through her honey-blonde hair agitatedly. Heero, unperturbed by her yelling, didn't move. Relena pushed past him, grabbing the handle to the door. 'Just one twist and I'm free.' She felt a warm hand envelope hers on the handle, stopping her from twisting it. Relena glared at the hand's owner.

"Relena, this is for your own good." Heero told her, his iron tight grasp on her hand left it immobile.

"My own good?" Relena felt her pent up anger bubbling up inside of her and bursting to be released. "What the hell would _you_ know about _my_ own good? Huh? Answer that Yuy!"

Heero didn't answer. Instead, he chose to stare at her with his expressionless, cold eyes.

"God dammit, Heero move. Or else-"

"Or else what? Relena." Heero interrupted.

"Or else… I'll, I'll make you." She told him sternly.

Heero seemed to find this funny. This was the final straw for Relena, her cerulean blue eyes darkened as she glowered at him.

"You are such an ass, Yuy! Don't you understand? I don't want this, I don't care what my damned brother thinks is best for me! Do you understand yet?"

"No." Heero replied, letting go of her hand and pushing her gently away from the door. "I cannot let you out Relena. I must follow my orders."

"Your _orders_?" Relena's fists clenched at her sides and she grit her teeth angrily. 'Okay Relena… deep breaths, you can get through this, don't let him get to you.'

"Don't I get a say in this? It is about _me._" She told him.

"No Relena, you don't. Now to save us both the hassle, why don't you go and sit down." Heero told her, his voice still devoid of all emotion. He placed both of his hands on her shoulders, to try to settle her down in her chair, but Relena decided to make things awkward.

"Get away from me!" She shoved his hands off her shoulders and pushed him back with as much force as she could muster.

Heero, shocked by her violent actions, took a few moments to recover. Relena used this time to her advantage, she dashed over to the door and was only a few inches away from it before her bodyguard jumped in front, throwing himself against the door. 'Oh hell, not again.' Relena thought.

"Oh no! You're not escaping that easy." He told her, a smirk spreading across his handsome face.

"Fine!" Relena inhaled a deep breath. 'So you want to play dirty Heero Yuy, well brace yourself.' She suddenly let out a piercing scream causing Heero to wince. She then tackled him to the floor in his moment of weakness. Heero automatically rolled her over, trying to get the upper hand. It was one of the rules of attacking. _If tackled, gain the upper hand_.

"What was the point in that?" Heero asked, grinning down at Relena, but he was stunned to see that she was grinning back. Suddenly she forced a fearful look onto her face, as if she was terrified of what he was about to do next. Heero frowned down at her in confusion.

"YUY! What the hell? Get off my sister now!" Zechs' voice roared throughout the room. Realisation dawned on Heero as he glanced up at Zechs, who was scowling back down at him. He glanced briefly back down to Relena who threw a quick wink at him, and then it was back to her 'innocent little girl' act.

"Yuy, I said get off her!" Heero found himself being lifted off Relena and pinned to the office wall by his throat. Choking for air, he glared at Zechs. "Now would you care to tell me what, exactly, you are playing at?" Zechs asked him, pushing him further against the wall, and therefore, blocking his air passage.

"…It… would… help…" Heero choked out between spluttering coughs. Zechs pulled him away from the wall and then thrust him harshly back into it again, causing Heero's eyes to lose focus.

"What are you saying?" Zechs spat at him. Heero's fingers clasped around Zechs' wrists, trying to pry his vice-like grip off his neck.

"…Can't breathe… Can't… talk!" Heero managed to cough out.

"Milliardo!" Relena screamed, "He can't breathe, let go of him now!" Zechs let go of the ex-pilot and Heero fell to the ground, coughing and spluttering in between gasping for air.

Once Heero had regained his stature, he glared callously at Relena, who looked to the floor guiltily.

"Yuy, you're fired! Your services are no longer needed to protect Relena Peacecraft." Zechs told him, rather calmly. Relena's eyes grew wide as she stared at her brother in disbelief.

"But Milliardo who…" She started, but was cut off, by her brother.

"Trowa Barton can replace _him_ as your head bodyguard." He told her spitefully. Heero stood silently, observing the two siblings.

"You may leave now. You're things will be sent out to you, don't bother coming back for them." Zechs told Heero. Heero nodded his head slightly before turning his gaze on Relena. He glared daggers at her, his eyes suddenly icy. Relena shuddered. 'I never meant to get him fired.' "GO!" Zechs shouted to him. Heero turned on his heel and walked hastily out of the room.

Relena darted out of the room, following her recently made former, bodyguard and ignoring her brother's demands for her to stay. She was still in shock from Zechs having terminated his employment, 'that wasn't meant to happen, he was only meant to get in a little bit of trouble.' She couldn't believe he'd lost his job. This was all of _her_ fault. Guilt surged through her body leaving her feeling numb and strangely empty.

"Heero wait!" She called after his retreating form as she caught a glimpse of him from around a corner. Heero didn't wait, if anything, he quickened his pace. "Heero!" She ran as fast as her body would let her, and after a few moments of following him through the corridors, Heero slowed down for her. Relena ran to catch up with him.

"I'm so sorry Heero, I didn't mean for _that_ to happen." Relena explained, touching the back of his shoulder to get him to look at her. Heero turned around, his face as blank as usual, but his eyes… were alive with anger and an indefinite emotion… was it hate? Relena gasped, taking a step back and away from him.

"Stay away from me Relena." His voice was dead and hollow.

"No Heero. I'm sorry for what happened, but you're a great bodyguard, you can get another job elsewhere? Right?" Her cerulean blue eyes pleaded with him for forgiveness.

"Yes. Elsewhere." His voice was faded and Relena suddenly realised what he was thinking.

"No! Heero, you can't leave, there's a lot of jobs around here that you could take, I'll even put in a few good words, just don't… leave." Heero ignored her, turning around and starting to walk off again. Relena, angered by the fact that he was leaving and ignoring her, grabbed his arm, tugging him to a halt.

"Relena, let go of me!" Heero warned. His voice no longer hollow, but filled with anger. Relena didn't let go, instead she tightened her grip, her fingers digging into his arm.

"I told you to let go." He shoved her harshly away from him, causing Relena to fall to the ground. She looked up at him with now icy blue eyes.

"Right, whatever. Have it your way, leave for all I care!" Heero watched her slowly rise to her feet, dusting off her clothes. "Just know, that I'm not going to come looking for you. I'll leave you be, and you leave me be, that, I think would be the best plan." Heero glared at her coldly. Although Relena could have sworn that she saw a flash of pain in his eyes at her words. "I hate the way you do this to me. You act as if I'm the most important thing to you in the office, but as soon as you're off duty, I'm nothing! Not even a friend to you, Heero."

Heero stood silently, staring at her, as if she had grown two heads.

"Well I give up. I'm not going to try to make you my friend if you don't want to be one. Goodbye Heero." Relena stormed off down the corridor in the opposite direction. Once she was sure he was also walking away, she stopped and spun round to watch him.

He walked down the rest of the corridor and walking out of the main doors, Heero Yuy left the Peacecraft Mansion. Never to be seen there again...

* * *

_'Hatred paralyzes life; lovereleases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.' --Dr. Martin Luther King Jr._

Hello my lubblies! I know i should really be working on 'Eternally Yours' at the moment, but i was bored last night and decided to just write the prologue of this story. What do you think of their argument? Was it realistic enough, if you have any hints or ideas for ways to make it more believable please tell me them.

The story will properly begin in AC200, three years after this argument, but i won't tell you anything else, don't want to spoil it.

Please REVIEW! Just click the wee 'go' button below, and review and i will be a happy bunny! hehe

Love ya'll

Allura


	2. This is not me

**Between Love and Hate**

**Disclaimer:** Nope, still don't own Gundam Wing, and probably never will.

**Baka-san517** - Look updated lol, thanks for the review!

**Kisa Killian y Mika Seido** - Whoa, what a mouthful lol, I'mglad you liked the prologue, but now is when the story really begins... Thanks for the review!

**edhel-tarien - **Thanks so much for the review, Relena's not a love sick puppy in this fic, don't worry, however she is a little scared at the start, but the reason is totally understandable, i won't spoil it for you. You will understand what i mean after reading this.

**CrimsonDragon010 **- Lol, thanks for the review, i'm so happy you liked it. Well, no need to wait much longer, cause here it is, chapter 1...

**Chapter one: This is not me**

Relena sat at her office desk, her head was propped up against her hands and she was leaning against her paperwork. She stared down at the piles upon piles of sheet in front of her, not really seeing what was there.

"Miss Relena." Her secretary's sickeningly sweet voice snapped her from her daze. "I have to leave now." She smiled down at her gently before turning to Trowa, who was leaning against the far wall, and fluttering her eyelashes flirtatiously. Relena rolled her eyes.

"Sorry Olivia. Why are you leaving so early?" Relena asked. Olivia turned her attention back to her, blushing slightly.

"Early miss? It's already seven o'clock, the working day ended two hours ago." Relena, startled by her comment, glanced hastily down to her watch. She was right, it was nearing five past seven, and she still hadn't gotten through her days stack of paperwork.

"Okay Olivia. I'll see you in the morning." She started pushing her papers into an orderly style and stacking them into piles again, but feeling the young girl's gaze still upon her, she looked up at her secretary agitatedly. Olivia frowned at her, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Miss, its Friday. I'm going home for the weekend. I shall see you on Monday morning."

"Oh?" Relena's eyes danced over to her calendar, _Friday, 2nd February, AC200, _it read. Relena's heart dropped in her chest. 'Great, it's the weekend.' She thought sardonically.

Olivia threw a fleeting look towards Trowa, once his eyes met hers she flashed him a pretty smile and exited the room. Relena watched her in mild disgust before turning her gaze towards Trowa, who was avoiding eye contact with her. She laughed gently at him and he looked up at her in surprise, his eyebrows arching down in confusion.

"Are you ready to leave?" She asked him, "I'm sorry I kept you so late, I didn't realise the time."

"So I noticed." Trowa told her, with a trace of a smile on his lips.

"Then why didn't you say something?" She asked, puzzled.

"You looked distracted. I didn't want to interrupt you." He answered plainly, his face emotionless. At times, her bodyguard reminded her of a young stoic man she used to know, but then he would surprise her by starting conversations, answering her with full sentences (not Heero's well-known one-word answers) and _trying_ to be friends with her.

"Is there something you would like to talk about?" He asked her. Sighing, Relena shook her head wearily; there would be no point in sharing all of her worries with Trowa. It wouldn't be fair on him to be burdened with such pain.

"Well, I'm here if you ever want to Relena." Relena's head shot up to meet his stare, his voice held a firm tone of seriousness and his eyes yearned for the truth.

"Thank you, Trowa. That is very kind of you." Grabbing her bag, Relena shoved the papers inside, 'maybe some homework would help keep me occupied at the house,' she thought as she walked out of her office and through the doors that Trowa was holding open for her. She thanked him as she passed and had she been paying attention, she would have caught the longing and lovingly painful look he sent her as she walked passed him.

Relena greeted Pagan as she walked over to her new, black limousine. Stepping inside, she was met with the soft scent of lavender and camomile. She hated the smell that _all_ new cars contained, so she had brought her perfume into the car with her, and sprayed it along the seats to rid them off their old smell.

Trowa stepped in from the other side, and detecting the strange flowery scent, he looked towards Relena in mild confusion. He gained himself a brief smile before the young women turned to look out of her window, waiting for the car to take her home.

'Homeward bound.' She thought, 'More like hell bound.'

-8-

Upon arriving at her mansion, she looked up towards the many windows, peeking in each one for a sign of life. 'Good he's not home yet.' She thought as she walked up the path to the front door, closely tailing Trowa.

Trowa stepped into the large house. Stopping Relena with his hand, he turned to face her.

"Stay here, I'll go do the first inspection, and then I'll come back for you. You know the drill." Relena folded her arms, and sighed in frustration. "Relena, you know it's compulsory for me to do so."

"Trowa, we both already know there's nobody here that could be a threat to me." 'Except Matthew' she added silently.

"Relena, this is for your own good." Relena, shocked by his choice of words glared up at him, feeling a sense of 'déjà vu'.

Trowa headed off, to scan the mansion for any unwanted life forms, as Relena reluctantly waited beside the door.

She sighed, for what seemed like the millionth time that day, and ran her eyes across her foyer. It was decorated nicely, just to her tastes, with a bit of the classical, antique style. Matthew had chosen most of the furniture to suit his tastes, but she didn't mind, she wasn't too fussy with her furniture.

Long, crimson red, velvet curtains draped across large, glass windows and stopped just before they brushed the polished mahogany flooring. A grand arch stood just below the balcony of the second floor and in between two elegant sets of mahogany stairways, it was intricately designed with plain but enhancing floral designs. Her eyes roamed further up, until she was staring at a large broad hallway, with numerous doors on each side. Relena sighed, finding it hard to contain her urge to run up to her room, jump into bed and settle down for a good night's sleep.

"_Each bedroom has an en suite and a balcony." The old landowner told them. "I take it you two would like to take a look around upstairs." The woman stared at them, waiting for an answer. Relena felt the woman's gaze land on her and she pulled away from the intoxicating kiss that she had just been engaged in. She coughed gently._

"_Sorry, uh, what was that?" Relena asked her, as she blushed gently. The woman sighed and repeated her last sentence._

"_I asked if you two would like to take a look upstairs."_

"_Yes please, that would be great thank you." Relena answered politely, whilst nudging her boyfriend in the ribs. "Matthew, pay attention, would you?" She whispered._

"_I could ask you the same thing, and it's not my fault that I can't get enough of my gorgeous girlfriend." He told her, a dark smirk pulled across his lips._

_Relena giggled girlishly, and followed the old women up the grand staircase, dragging Matthew along behind her. The women in front of her opened the first door to the left._

"_This is merely one of the guest bedrooms, as I said before, it is included with an en suite and balcony."_

"_Matthew, look at the size of this." She pulled her boyfriend into the room and he glanced around, impressed. "And you say this is only one__ of the _guest_ bedrooms?" She asked the woman._

"_Yes, indeed. Now would you like to see the Master bedroom?"_

"_Oh, yes please." Relena said, barely able to restrain the excitement bubbling up within her. _

_The next room the woman led them into, truly was huge, a large canopied four-poster bed was set in the centre of the room and leaning against the right side wall._

"_Oh my… I love this… Don't you Matthew? Couldn't you just imagine living here?" Relena removed herself from his grasp. She danced across the room blissfully and then rested on the bed. Matthew followed her. He was aware of the old woman's glare, which pursued them both from where she stood, across the room, but decided to ignore it for now. He sat down beside Relena, draping his arm across her shoulder and pulling her small body into his before planting a kiss on her forehead._

"_We'll take it."_

"_Huh?" Relena and the old woman both asked simultaneously._

"_We'll take the house. Won't we, sweetheart?" He asked Relena, who pulled away from him to look him in the eyes._

"_We... we will?" She asked, her eyes shining with anticipation._

"_Yes of course we will. It is what you want, isn't it?"_

"_Yes!" She squealed, jumping into his lap and kissing him in the excitement of the moment._

"Relena!" Trowa's voice called out to her.

"Huh?" Relena asked, turning toward him in a dazed stupor.

"I said, all's clear, come on, you're tired, you need a good night's sleep."

"My thought's exactly." Relena told him, gazing into his concerned eyes. "You didn't notice whether Matthew was here or not, did you?"

"No. He's not here." Trowa replied solemnly. Relena smiled at him kindly.

"OK, goodnight Trowa." She tore her gaze slowly away from his, and brushed past him, walking into her room and closing the door gently.

"Goodnight Relena." Trowa replied as he looked regretfully at the door that had just been closed on him.

-8-

Relena moaned gratefully as she sunk into the soft mattress beneath her. She positioned herself comfortably before closing her eyes and attempting to sleep, alone, for the first time in a while. And for once, she wasn't afraid. However, she knew that this fake courage would dissipate as soon as _he _stepped into the house again.

_Dark slate grey eyes haunted her sleep, stirring her from peaceful dreams._

'_Relena…' he moved closer to her, his shadow blocked out her only form of light... 'Relena…' he was now so close that she could feel his breath brush hotly against her cheek. 'Relena, I'm back. Are you ready? Are you ready for me yet, Relena?' He ran his fingers down her face, leaving an icy stinging sensation trailing behind them. 'Are you ready for me yet?' His voice was cold and mocking as he laughed at her callously._

'_No, no… no, not yet…' Relena forced herself away from the man's malicious glare. Backing up further and further, she found herself trapped in a corner. 'Is this a dream? It has to be… but it's so real…'_

'_No Relena, this is no dream. This is reality! Now wake up from your idealistic dreams, and be prepared… Relena… Relena…' his voice was so mocking, so cruel and so intense…_

"…Relena… Relena wake up…" Relena tossed in her bed, a layer of cold sweat coating her skin. Her eyes suddenly opened wide, she stared in shock at the canopy above her. 'It was just a dream, Relena' she told herself. She rolled over to her left, only to be met with…

_Dark, slate grey eyes…_

"Relena, I'm back." She felt her whole body tense up as the hauntingly familiar voice jarred in her memory. 'That was no dream' she thought silently.

"Relena?" The eyes frowned at her. "Aren't you even going to say hello?" The man smirked at her, as the dark, slate grey eyes from her dream, lit up with cold humour.

'Why am I so afraid? This is not me…'

"Matthew. Where have you been?" Relena asked the man beside her; putting on her brave voice, his handsome face glared down at her.

"Oh, so you are alive in there." He smirked at her again, and Relena knew, what little comfort she had last night had been lost in those eyes. "Come on it's time to get up. I have a business trip to go on this week, so I won't be around much, you may as well get the best out of me now."

Relena didn't move, she was still frozen in her bed; Matthew grabbed her arm tightly, twisting it slightly, not caring if he hurt her, and tugged her out of bed.

"I told you to get up, come on now, I have plans made already, and I'll not have _you _hold me back." He told her, his voice had gone cold and dangerous, like it had been in her dream. Relena sat on the ground staring at him helplessly, she suddenly felt like a mere child under his power.

"Be downstairs in fifteen." He told her as he left their room.

Relena got up quickly, stepping into the en suite for a quick shower before changing and rushing downstairs, her hair still damp from the shower. Disobeying his orders was not at the top of her to-do-list. Disobeying his orders was not an option.

'This is definitely not me.'

* * *

_'To really know someone is to have loved and hated him in turn'- Marcel Jouhandeau_

I know that there isn't much information on what's been happening in the past three years on this chapter, but all will be revealed soon. Lol.

Next chapter is Heero's chappie! YAY!

But PLEASE review! You're reviews keep me alive, and also influence me to work faster, so the more reviews, the quicker the updates! (grins) hehee.

Love ya'll

Allura


	3. A chance to change

**Between Love and Hate**

**Disclaimer:** I do _not_ own Gundam Wing. Although I do own Nikki, Derek and anyone else you don't recognise from the series.

A/N - Eventually, i get to post this... stupid fanfiction server being down delayed all my updates (aswell as everyone elses) and wouldn't let anyone review, at least i'm hoping that's why hardly anyone reviewed ah well...

Burgandy: Thanks for the review, very encouraging lol.Hurry up to get _your_ next post up!

miroku-has-darkness: Thanks for the review.

Oh and italics are either flashbacks or the writing on letters. You'll work it out though...

**Chapter two: A chance to change**

Location: Earth – Spain – Costa Blanca - Denia

Heero sat on a pool chair, his laptop balanced on his lap, and basking in the suns delirious rays. The sound of exotic bird cries echoed through his mind, whilst off in the distance he could hear the sounds of the Mediterranean waves crashing against the rocks. He closed his eyes, shielding them from the blindingly bright sun. It was midday and he knew that the suns rays were most harmful at this time of day; he should have been inside, resting as most others do during siesta. But Heero liked to use this time to his advantage, at this time it was peaceful and quiet, there was no rowdy kids running up and down the Denia streets and there was no busy shoppers scurrying to get their groceries before the shops closed for siesta. No one, but him.

He closed his laptop, setting it over to the side, and into his briefcase. He couldn't have it being waterlogged. After all, it was his only form of escape from this secluded foreign country, which he was now living in. He settled back into his deckchair, enjoying the hot rays of the sun that he could feel heating his skin.

"Arrghh!" Cold water splashed over his nicely warmed tan body. He jumped up from his chair in surprise, glancing down to the head that had just emerged from the water in the pool. "I'll get you back for that!"

Large chocolate brown eyes stared at him from behind long fluttering lashes. He glared at them, sighing deeply; the owner of the brown eyes began laughing hysterically.

"Nicola…" Heero growled through gritted teeth. The girl stopped laughing and brushed her dark brown bangs out of her eyes.

"Heero, why must you insist to call me that when you know how much I hate it?" She asked, her English was accented with a Spanish twist. She grabbed onto the side of the pool and hoisted herself up.

"You just answered your own question." Nicola scoffed as he smirked at her, drying himself with his towel. She snatched the towel out of his hands, grinning at him slightly and then drying herself off.

Heero, somewhat annoyed at her actions, lifted the towel out of her hands once she had finished and gave her a small push backwards. Nicola's face lit up in surprise as she stumbled backwards into the pool.

Smirking, Heero set himself back down into his chair, pleased to have gotten his revenge. He tilted his head back and listened for her head to pop up and start countering coloured language at him, after a few moments, he was surprised that he hadn't heard her come out. Glancing over to the pool, he noticed, that she was not in his sight; he noted the fact that there were small faint bubbles breaking through the top of the pool where he had pushed her.

"Oh shit." Heero jumped up from his chair, his heart racing rapidly in his chest. 'She should be up by now.'

"Nicola." He shouted, forgetting that raising your voice above a whisper was banned during the hours of siesta. And without thinking twice, Heero dived into the deep end of their pool. He pushed the water out of his way, trying to get a full scan of the pool.

He felt her hand on his shoulder, and turned around quickly, wanting to sigh in relief, it was then that he realised that they were both still holding their breath. He grabbed her arm, and kicking off the pool floor, thrust himself up to the top, bringing the girl with him. His head broke through the water as he gasped for air, Nicola doing the same thing, he turned to face her as she grinned mischievously back at him.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" He asked her, not able to withhold the anger from his voice.

"What's wrong Heero? Where you worried?" She faked an innocently curious face.

"Of course I was! I'm paid to guard your life, not drown you in our pool!"

"Is that all?" She asked again, a slight smirk playing on her lips. Heero frowned at her.

"No…" he told her reluctantly. Nicola placed a finger over her lips, hushing him.

"Don't say a word." She reached out, placing her hands on his shoulders and pushed him down slowly under the water. Heero grimaced in confusion before taking a last breath and ducking his head under.

Pushing them both further under water, Nicola pressed her body up close to her bodyguard's. Wrapping her leg around his, she smiled at him before leaning in hastily.

Heero met her half way, taking her mouth in his own. He kissed her passionately reciprocating her actions, his hand resting on the back of her head to push her closer to him. Deepening the kiss, Heero felt he couldn't get enough of the intense feeling however much he got, he just couldn't satisfy his needs and this gluttonous hunger that seemed to be overpowering him. Kicking his legs, he pushed them to the top, were they both broke away at a loss of breath, leaning his forehead on hers, Heero stared into her enticing brown eyes, feeling lost. Nicola flashed him a dark smile, pressing her lips against his once more.

"See…" She told him in between kisses, "What you would be missing, if I wasn't here." Heero pulled away from her, diving under the water, he grabbed her legs, and hearing her incoherent squeal he pushed her up onto the edge of the pool.

"Yes, a whole lot," He jumped up beside her, "and all of this." He added whilst kissing her lightly on the lips before walking over to his deck chair and throwing himself down. He closed his eyes once again, feeling a wave of tiredness overpower him. 'I really have to stop these all-nighters.'

Heero was dry in no time. He glanced at his watch, 'Three thirty? What have I done for three hours?' He suddenly remembered the passionately heated kisses he had shared with his girlfriend.

He suddenly remembered her last words…

"_See… what you would be missing, if I wasn't here."_

He had answered her truthfully; he would have been missing a whole lot. Nicola had unlocked a part of him that even he hadn't known was there. His heart.

He could even admit now, that he had changed dramatically; he wasn't so much the 'perfect soldier' anymore, in fact he was probably as close to normal now as he would ever be.

"_Derek? What do you want?" Heero asked down his cell phone._

"_Heero… we found you a job." Derek answered_

"_Hn, okay, and…"_

"_You're needed as a bodyguard, it's a very high profile job, but there's a glitch."_

"_A glitch?"_

"_Yes. We couldn't find any jobs for you within this proximity, and this one is your only choice."_

"_Hurry up and tell me where I would be located." Heero snapped impatiently._

"_Spain."_

"_Spain?" Heero asked in disbelief. "You could only get something in Spain."_

"_Yes Heero, you had the best job available for you with Relena, but you messed that up." Heero growled down the receiver. _

"_This is the only job we could get you that wouldn't have you completely and utterly bored. This one is a high profile job, therefore enabling you to use your level of training and strategic abilities. This is the best we can get. Take it or leave it Heero?"_

_Heero sighed… Spain… it was so far away from the place he now called home._

'_I will be back one day Relena.'_

"_OK. What are the details?" He asked, the man down the phone sighed in relief._

"_Right, you are now the official bodyguard of Nicola de Rivera." 'Her name sounds so familiar,' "Her profession as a model should mean that she will have a lot of over-obsessed stalkers trailing her every move, oh and the press, try to keep her away from the press unless she wants the publicity." 'That's why she sounds so familiar… the semi-famous supermodel, Nikki de Rivera.'_

"_I hear she's quite a talkative girl, so Heero…?"_

"_Hn?"_

"_Please converse with her, and _do not _give her the cold shoulder. You got that?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Ok great. That's it. I'll book you a flight to Madrid for tomorrow morning."_

"_Madrid?" _

"_Yes, that's where her agents have situated her. Although I hear she plans to move within the next year."_

'_Hmm I've always wanted to go to Costa Blanca.'_

"_OK. Email me the flight arrangements."_

That had been the start of this completely new life. The change, as he thought of it, because really, so much _had_ changed since then.

He met Nicola de Rivera the next day in Madrid, and mentally noted that she was even prettier than she was in the magazines. The tall girl had taken to him immediately, and during the ride had tried to make conversation with him, asking him question after question after question. And so started his profession as Nikki de Rivera's personal bodyguard.

After a while, Nicola had started to break away the barriers to his soul and work her way into his heart. It had taken a long and exhausting six months for the two to finally realise that they had a spark, a connection, a bond, upon which they started to form a relationship.

As planned, Nicola had started to search the country for a new house to spend her well-earned fortune on. She found it in Costa Blanca, a beautiful old building, with seventeen rooms, a large pool and a magnificent garden. This house, of course, had been Heero's choice, but Nicola also had fallen in love with it at first sight, the fact that it was in quite a secluded area of Spain didn't bother her in the least. And so a year after Heero had taken the job, they moved into the house at Costa Blanca.

It has now been two years since they moved in and three since Heero had left the Sanc Kingdom.

"Heero!" Nicola called him from the house, Heero's eyes jolted open. 'Had I been sleeping?'

"You've got a few letters here, do you want to come and open them?" Heero noted the time on his watch, four o'clock. He could here the tourists exploring the area, the children parading the streets, and the shoppers back to the marts. The sun was already starting to set behind the hills, 'damn these short days'. He got up, shaking his head to rid him of his drowsiness and walked into the house.

"Here." Nicola pushed the letters into his hands, smiling at him and then walking off, singing in her nicely tuned Spanish voice. 'Probably going to sort out her closet, God knows, she really needs to, she has_ too_ much clothes in there.'

Sticking his finger in between the parting of the first letter, he pulled it along, tearing the envelope open. He took the piece of paper from the envelope carefully, and opened it slowly. He could never be too cautious.

'It's from Derek'

…_Heero, Nicola's employers have given her a two-month break, because she has an important photo shoot in July, so they have rescheduled her holidays. Please inform Nikki of this..._

Heero grunted and crumpling the letter, threw it in the trashcan.

"Nicola?" He heard the Spanish voice upstairs, which was still singing, halt midway through a sentence, notifying him that she had heard the call. He then heard her feet running over to the banister of the stairs.

"Yes?" She called, heavily accented with her Spanish voice.

"Your employers have rescheduled your holiday period." He heard her groaning. "You now have two months free from tomorrow morning."

"Nicola?" He called again, unsure of whether she was listening.

"Yes, I heard you Heero. I'm going to go think of what we can do." He heard her feet scurrying back into their room.

Heero glanced down at the next letter, it was handwritten, 'I recognise that handwriting, is that Quatre's?' Without hesitation, Heero ripped the envelope open and took out the letter.

_Heero,_  
_I am contacting you to inform you that I shall be having a 'get-together' at my house next week. I shall be inviting everyone from our group and would be delighted if you would also attend. To make the arrangements more suitable, you are all more than welcome to stay here for a few weeks. I feel that this should give us all more time to catch up on things that we have missed._  
_Please respond soon, so I can get an idea of who all will be attending._  
_Many thanks for your time._  
_Yours truly,_  
_Quatre and Dorothy Winner._

'Quatre and Dorothy Winner' a slight smile escaped from Heero and danced across his lips. He had briefly been in contact with his old friends, but only Duo and Quatre. Duo had written to him over a year ago informing him of his marriage to Hilde and how Quatre and Dorothy were to be married within the next three months. 'Looks like I missed, yet another wedding.' He sighed gently and placed the letter back in the envelope.  
He fetched his laptop from outside and hastily brought up his email editor, writing a reply to Quatre. He hit the send button and went to make his way upstairs.

"Nicola? I have an idea." He told her as he reached the doorframe to their room, leaning against it he watched his girlfriend as she flicked through a 'Vogue' magazine.

"You do?" she asked without tearing her eyes away from the column she was reading.

"Yes. How do you feel about going to the Sanc Kingdom for a few weeks?"

* * *

'_The heart that can no longer love passionately, must with fury hate' - Jean Baptiste Racine_

Thanks for reading, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please review!

Love ya'll

Allura


	4. Nothing to lose

**Between Love and Hate**

Disclaimer: Me no own Gundan Wing.

burgandy3721 - Impatience... yeah it's one my bad traits lol. Anyways, yeah, Nikki's cool but... umm yea, can't tell ya yet, it'll spoil the plot lol. Thanks for the review.

Charliechaz - It's ME! I do like them as a couple, i just tend to have different plots lol. Don't worry, i'll update EY soon, just you know... keep reading! Thanks for the review.

Rin Amaru - Yeah... umm... Nikki, she won't do anything bad, i promise, just watch and see (grins) Thanks for the review.

Faerex - Trowa's so cute, isn't he, you just wana give him a BIG hug lol. Anyways, he will, don't worry, but i can't say too much yet, just please kep reading. Thanks for the review!

RayxJade - Thank you for the review, but i can't give the main couples away yet, but i can tell you that Nikki and Matthew won't play big roles.

miroku-has-darkness - Thanks for the review, yeah i liked that chapter too!

Gemini Wings - Umm... thanks for the rant? All i can say is that, i understand all the characters as well, but does everyone want to read about the same plot lines, the same character couples and the same basic story over and over again? I hope not because then they aren't liking mine very much. I like to use my imagination, its what writing stories is all about. And Quatre is a kind, forgiving guy, you can see this after Dorothy stabs him and he seems to forgive her. He's not a guy to hold grudges, and there was a strange spark between them, i thought i would work on this spark and expand it, also maybe Quatre could tame Dorothy's aggressive nature... you never know. As for Heero, he has cut himself off from Relena in this story and Relena, well when one has domestic problems and they are scared of the one they are with, they tend not to tell anyone about what's happening, as i explain in this chapter. Sorry if my story in anyway has offended you.

**Chapter three: Nothing to lose**

Matthew Connors. An amazing politician, heartbreakingly handsome features, he's rich, charming, enticing and _dangerous_.

You couldn't tell by looking at him, you couldn't tell by talking to him, hell, you couldn't even tell by dating him. However, you could tell by living with him. Relena Peacecraft found this out the hard way.

She ran swiftly down the dark mahogany stairs, her slender pale hands skimming across the dark polished wood of the banister as she went. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, she slowed to a fast pace and entered the kitchen.

"Took you long enough." Matthew stated, greeting her with his rough voice.

Relena glanced up at him, he looked sober, at least that meant he couldn't do her any _real_ harm.

"Sorry, I was… umm, in the shower." She told him, rather nervously.

"Right okay, well like I told you, I have a business trip and I probably won't be back until late next week."

"Uh that's fine." Relena answered, grabbing a few slices of bread and shoving them in the toaster.

"I'm leaving at two o'clock today." He turned to face her, sipping from a cup of coffee.

"Okay." Relena, who was still occupied with making her breakfast, did not meet his gaze.

"I have to go and get myself packed. Go and get my mail for me, before I finish my breakfast." Relena sighed and looked up at him; she knew that if she refused his request he would become infuriated.

"Fine." She said not being able to hold the bitterness from her voice; she dropped what she was doing and walked out of the room to get the mail from the foyer.

Scanning through the mail she noticed that only a few letters were for her; she stuffed them in her pocket to open later and walked back to the kitchen slowly.

"Here." She held the mail out for Matthew to take and he snatched it from her and walked from the room, looking for privacy.

Relena didn't exactly mind, she had some letters she wanted to read privately anyway.

"Work related, work related, work related," She muttered to herself fingering through her letters. "Hmm, who's this from, it's handwritten." She tore it open and pulled the letter out, unfolding it and then reading it.

_Relena,_  
_I am contacting you to inform you that I shall be having a 'get-together' at my house next week. I shall be inviting everyone from our group and would be delighted if you would also attend. To make the arrangements more suitable, you are all more than welcome to stay here for a few weeks. I feel that this should give us all more time to catch up on things that we have missed._  
_Please respond soon, so I can get an idea of who all will be attending._  
_Many thanks for your time._  
_Yours truly,_  
_Quatre and Dorothy Winner_

Relena stared at the letter, and then re-reading it, decided what she was going to do.

'This is it, my chance for an escape from this hellish life I've been drifting through.'

Matthew walked back into the kitchen and Relena quickly shoved the letter back into her pocket. She would reply later, when Matthew was gone.

"Right I'm going to pack now, and once I'm finished I'm leaving for France. Turns out, that I'll be gone for three weeks. You won't do anything stupid right?" He muttered the last part so quietly that it was nearly incoherent, and walked out of the room.

"I guess that was a rhetorical question then." Relena told herself, and gathering her thoughts, she left the room to find spare writing paper to write her reply. She was going, and no one could stop her, not even Matthew.

Relena had met Matthew at a political conference a little more than a year ago. They had started talking there and not long after were having regular dates together. Relena and Matthew had bought this house, a year into their blossoming relationship. Thinking about it, Relena regularly regretted not waiting for a while longer, to let the relationship develop further, maybe then she could have prevented herself from gaining a few too many bruises.

Her relationship hadn't started out like this. In fact, Relena had been pretty sure that this guy might even have been the one for her, the one to take her mind off another person from her past. For a few months, he was able to do just that. Take her mind off Heero that is.

Relena loved going out on dates with him, he was charming, attractive, admirable, and most of all, he made her feel good. She found herself falling in love with his quirky little traits. Like the way that he would regularly run his strong hands through his silky blond locks, the way he would crack silly and ridiculous jokes at events to get people to pay attention to him, or even to break the ice. The way he would kiss her with so much passion that she felt she would almost explode, even the way when another guy looked at her in a way that was a little more than friendly, he would pull her into him, wrapping his hands firmly around her and shooting the other man a warning look. She loved them all.

However, a few weeks after moving into the house with him, he had begun to get curious to where she was going during the day and night. He frequently started asked her questions such as who was she going out with, where was she going and how long for. It confused Relena to why he was acting like this; but, she just shrugged it off as nothing, until that is, the day that he had saw her hugging Quatre.

Quatre had just left her off after they had attended a conference together, and Quatre, being the good-natured, friendly person that he is, hugged Relena goodbye, little did Relena know that Matthew had been watching her from an upstairs window.

As she entered the house, a pair of cold slate grey eyes instantly greeted her.

"_Matthew!" Relena gasped, clutching her chest, "You startled me. Don't do that, are you trying to give me a heart attack?"_

_She was met with no answer; her boyfriend just stared at her, a strange ravenous fire burning in his cold eyes. Relena frowned._

"_What is it? What is wrong with you?" She asked curiously._

"_Who was that?" He asked her, ignoring her question, his voice icy and callous._

"_What?" Relena asked, confused, "Quatre? I told you earlier that he was taking me to the conference."_

"_Quatre… What were you doing with him? Did you go out with him afterwards?"_

"_What?" Relena asked again in shock, "No, he brought me straight home."_

_Matthew glared at her, seeming to pin Relena to the ground with his eyes. She swallowed hard; she could feel the tension in the room turn up a few notches._

"_I seen the two of you in the garden together," he told her._

_Relena's eyebrows creased as she tried to remember what he was talking about. The garden… She gasped in recognition as it dawned on her._

"_That was just a hug Matthew! Nothing more than a friendly hug!"_

"_A _friendly_ hug?"_

"_Yes, a friendly hug." Relena answered becoming irritated, 'what was up with him and why was he acting so jealous?'_

"_Right, fine then, I'm sorry Relena." His eyes immediately softened and it seemed as if the iciness that had been like an aura, surrounding him, had melted._

_Relena cracked a slow and insincere smile._

"_It's ok. Just don't jump to conclusions so fast."_

He hadn't said anything for a few months after that, he hadn't even questioned her to what she was doing, she felt free in a way and felt glad that she was being trusted again and getting her own free space back.

However, one day, after she had come home from a hen night party at Hilde's he dragged her into the living room, violently shouting at her.

"_Where have you been, I thought you said that you wouldn't be home late?" Matthew spat at her, Relena turned her head away from the smell of alcohol that was strongly reeking from his breath. This however, was not a good idea; Matthew grabbed her chin harshly and twisted her head back to look at him._

"_Answer me!" He yelled._

"_I don't have to Matthew; I already told you that I was at Hilde's party." Relena told him, withdrawing the fear she felt from her voice._

"_A PARTY? I never said that you could go to any party!"_

"_What and now I have to ask for your permission to go out?" Relena asked, the anger coursing through her body was overtaking the fear she felt inside and causing her voice to rise._

"_Yes!" He yelled at her. "That's it, I don't want you going out anymore, you go to work and come straight home, do you understand?"_

"_No Matthew I don't. You cannot tell me what and what not to do."_

_Matthew grabbed her, his anger escalating, and pinned her to the wall, his hands gripped firmly around her shoulders. Relena stood under his grip, shocked at the power that he contained. Suddenly all of her strength disappeared, and she felt weak, defenceless and not herself._

"_You better abide by these rules or else you will find out just what I_ can _do." He threatened her._

And so it started. Relena's hollow life surrounded by fear and darkness and consumed by intimidating threats and abuse from her _boyfriend._

She went to work with Trowa every morning, plastering a fake smile across her face and worked in her office silently, sometimes she worked longer than necessary in order to stay away from the scrutinising wrath that lay at home. Then she would come straight home, breaking his rules would be just _too_ risky, and though she didn't feel like it anymore, she still valued her life.

To the world, Relena had gotten into the habit of pretending that everything was just 'fine and dandy' but secretly she was dying inside, being eaten up by her depression and as she walked around she could only describe herself as a zombie, outside she was alive, inside she was dead.

She had also become an expert at hiding what was happening in her life from the prying eyes of other people and denying that anything was wrong. She felt like a pathological liar, it seemed to her that her whole life was built upon lies and if she were to let the truth slip out, her life would crumble.

Days, weeks and months seemed to drag past her. She had never felt so worthless and pathetic in her whole life. She often questioned why she still stayed with _him_; it wouldn't be too hard to get away from him. But Matthew was a man of high status and power, he knew many people in many places, and wherever she went, she _knew_ that he would find her and she feared what retaliation he would carry out upon her if he ever caught her. As mentioned before, Matthew is a strong man, strong enough to hold even Relena, the most 'strong woman' in the eyes of the public, from escaping from his grasp.

Sometimes, Relena even came to blame herself for his abuse, feeling that it was somehow her fault, that it was she who had made his behaviour change so dramatically over the past few years. And she often found herself wondering what she did to drive him to his limits, to make him so angry and hateful towards her.

When they left the house, for political parties, Matthew would act completely different to her than he did in private; he acted as if he really did love her and displayed this affection towards her in front of everyone else.

Somehow, through doing this, acting differently in public than he did at home, Matthew had gained control over her _and_ the relationship.

Relena became very confused, she knew that Matthew kept her trapped because he loved her and was a jealous man, but how could somebody act so hateful towards the one that they loved. Where was the line that was drawn to border the realms of love and hate? And had Matthew crossed it?

Now Relena knew. She knew that Matthew had indeed crossed the line. She knew that she had to get out and away from him, she knew the risks and she knew that not only her wellbeing was in danger, but also her life.

She wrote a reply to Quatre and posted it that day, and after Matthew had left for his trip to France, she packed her bags and she fled.

She fled away from her mortal hell, her abusive boyfriend and her hollow, dull, imprisonment of a life.

* * *

_"There's nothing in this world so sweet as love, and next to love the sweetest thing is hate." -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_

Hey there, thanks for reading, please tell me what you think and review.

I don't know whether i have given enough detail into Relena's past few years or not, so please tell me what your opinions are.

And REVIEW! Thank you!

Love ya'll Allura


	5. Waking up

**Between Love and Hate**

Disclaimer: As you already know, i do not own Gundam Wing.

A/N - Hey guys, sorry this chapter is longer than the others,but i just couldn't leave any of it out, and i _had to_ get the end bit in lol. Anyways, any EY readers, i am truly sorry, but i'm just having some difficulties with that story at the minute, hopefully they will be overcome soon. (Hmm i am soooooooooo tired... zzzz)

miroku-has-darkness: Thanks for the review!

Faerex: Yep he is a jerk, lol, but i can't gve anything away yet, although, you will get your wish. Thanks for the review!

RayxJade: Lol nope, sorry, no can do. Duo and Hilde should play a big part, i love them two... watch what happens in this chappie! I love your story btw, just havent got round to finishing it yet, sorry! but i will soon, damn these exams! Anyways thanks for the review!

edhel-tarien: Thanks for the review, its a great confidence booster, i have a habit of making people dislike my fics as you may have seen in the reviews for this lol. Anyway yeah Matthew's a jerk, but he's gone... for now!

sonia: Thank you very much for the lovely review! Lol, but pairings won't be revealed til the end lol, hope you all aren't disappointed.

whimsy007: Trowa isn't there _all_ of the time in this fic, and yes he does see somethings, but... this chapter may explain it...

Charliechaz: Hey, thanks for the review, you're the best! lol AND i totally agree with you about the whole characterisation thing.

burgandy3721: Nah it's no problem lol, well done you updated rogue... hehe. But as for Nikki.. we'll have to see how things go. Thanks for the review!

jen: Hey, thanks very much for the review, well here's the nest chapter (smiles)

Rin Amaru: Ahh, really? Please point them out to me, i do normally re-read them before posting, but sometimes i just miss things out, or like today, there might be a lot cause i'm like... well tired! Thanks for the review!

**Chapter four: Waking up**

Relena dashed outside, wallowing in the pleasant fresh air that she was currently drowning her lungs in. It felt like she was waking up from an endless waltz of nightmares and it was surprisingly exhilarating. She exhaled her held breath, feeling an emotion that was half joy and half dread wash over her. She couldn't wait to see her friends again, it had been so long since she had seen most of them, however, she was dreading the fact that since Quatre had stated in his letter that he was inviting them _all_ back, Heero was going to be there.

She honestly didn't know what to expect from him, it had been a long three years and mixed emotions were emerging from within her at the mere thought of meeting him again.

She ran swiftly up to the dark sports car that was waiting for her in her driveway, she glanced towards the windows, but since they were tinted, she was not able to see the driver through them.

Opening the passenger door, she lowered herself into the car and threw her bags in the backseat. She could feel the glare of her driver upon her and she raised her eyes to meet his gaze.

Trowa glared at her, his emerald eyes glittering with a mix of annoyance and perhaps regret.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He growled. Relena scowled back at him. 'I didn't expect him to be so cold.' She thought.

"Trowa, I didn't tell anybody, in fact you're the first to know. Look, I don't want to talk about this, can you just drive us to the Winner Mansion?"

Trowa however, didn't move and Relena could still feel his eyes trying to pierce through her barriers.

"I asked you…" He started, "I asked you to be honest with me and I asked you to tell me what was going on in the house. I _knew _there was something going on when _he_ banned me from setting foot in there." His voice was rising as he grew angrier, but his anger was not channelled towards her, but towards Matthew. This was the first time that Relena had witnessed Trowa showing his true emotions, and it was, in her mind, a rare event.

"You denied that anything was going on… and I knew it wasn't true, but I never pushed you to tell me because you would always shut down on me when I asked. God dammit Relena, _why_?" He was now turned so that his whole body was facing her, Relena's eyes drifted down to stare at her own hands, she couldn't bear the pained look that was painted across his face, it was all too much for her, to see the once expressionless man glaring at her with such confusion and distress.

"Trowa… I've been through a lot and I don't want to-" Relena started, but surprisingly, Trowa, who now seemed to be losing his patience with her, interrupted.

"I could have prevented this, and you know it. Why didn't you just tell me? Why did you just keep suffering in the dark? I could have prevented this!"

"No you couldn't have Trowa! Matthew's a powerful man." Relena rebounded, her anger also beginning to increase. Trowa scoffed.

"How long Relena? How long had it been going on?" He wanted to know. There was a silence for a few minutes whilst Relena fidgeted with her hands, nervously. "Since you stopped going out, am I right?"

Relena nodded silently, watching Trowa from her peripheral vision. 'He's disgusted; I knew I shouldn't have told him. I wonder what he's thinking now." She sighed deeply and Trowa put his keys back into the engine, starting the car.

"You weren't the only one suffering Relena, all of your friends have been suffering because you've been down all the time. I just wish you could have told me." He stepped on the accelerator and the car sped out of the driveway, Relena grabbed her seatbelt and pulled it round her waist, she had forgotten how all of the pilots had always had a craving for speed.

"I thought you at least trusted me _that _much." He told her, glancing towards her a few times, but mainly keeping his eyes on the road.

"Trowa… I do trust you. I just… don't trust Matthew. There was no point in getting you involved in the situation too."

"Yes there was Relena; don't you see that what he was doing was against the law? That man needs to be locked up." He paused, "And you seem to have forgotten who I used to be before the wars ended." He pulled the car into gear, adjusting the stick a few times. "Do you really think that a man like Matthew could really do any damage to me?"

"No- Yes- I don't know Trowa. I just didn't want to drag you down with me, it wouldn't have been fair."

"Oh what? And its fair keeping me in the dark is it?"

'I never remember Trowa talking so much, he's so worked up.' She thought.

Relena turned away from his scrutinizing gaze and looked out of the window.

"I already told you that I don't want to talk about this okay?" She told him quietly, but sternly.

"Relena…" Trowa growled, aggravated by her stubbornness. "We _need_ to talk about this."

"No we don't. Look if you want to do something for me, just keep driving and get me to Quatre's."

"We can go further." Trowa stated, his voice was once again calm, and when Relena glanced up to his face, she noticed that it was back to its expressionless mask.

"What? What do you mean?"

"I don't think this is as far away from him as you'd look to be and I'd be happier if you were further away from him. I need to make sure you're going to be safe."

"Trowa, I hardly think that he will be able to do anything to me at the Winner's mansion, and after all, aren't all the ex gundam pilots going to be boarding there?" A trace of a smile made its way across Trowa's lips. "I don't think that I could be in a safer place."

"Okay then." Trowa stated, swerving his car into the driveway of the Winner Mansion.

As they pulled up in front of the house, Trowa put the handbrake on and stepped out of his car, walking to the other side to allow Relena to step out. He held his hand out for her and she accepted it after she had lifted her bags from the back. Trowa politely took the bags from her and swung them over his shoulder.

Relena shivered as she remembered why she was here and whom she was running from, and as if sensing her fears, Trowa slipped his hand into hers and gave it a tight squeeze for reassurance.

Relena smiled, she knew what that had been for, he was telling her, in one gentle squeeze, that from now on, everything was going to be okay and he was going to be there for her.

'Never again,' Relena thought, 'will I keep a secret from Trowa.'

"Lena!" Hilde's squeal tugged Relena from her musings and she looked up to see her best friend, charging down the steps of the mansion and bounding straight towards her and Trowa. Relena glanced behind her to see Duo walking down the steps, wearing his trademark grin and his long chestnut braid swinging behind him.

"Oh my God! Lena, Duo and I were just heading out for a walk-," Hilde panted, in between gasps for breaths. "I didn't think you were coming." Relena stared at her curiously, it had been nearly a year now since she had had contact with her best friend, no thanks to Matthew, but she couldn't have gotten so unfit in that space of time.

Duo appeared behind Hilde, still grinning, he wrapped his arms around his wife and cuddled her gently. He noticed Relena's frown, and if possible, his grin became even wider.

Relena narrowed her eyes at him; she knew that mischievous look all too well.

"Hey Lena!" He said happily and then turned to look at Trowa. "Hey Trowa!"

Trowa nodded in return, a faint smile appearing on his lips.

"Hilde?" Relena asked her friend, who was still panting and out of breath. "Why are you so out of breath? You didn't have to run _that_ far to get here."

"Oh?" Hilde looked up at her, confused, "You didn't get my emails?"

Relena grimaced; Matthew had banned her from using her email address and had put a block on the computers in the house to stop anyone from contacting her, or her from contacting anyone else.

"No. My computer's broken." Relena lied, feeling somewhat guilty, Trowa turned to look at her, sending her his 'knowing' look, obviously this time he could see right through her rather pathetic attempt for a lie. However, Hilde bought it as she nodded in acknowledgement.

"Oh right well-" A large grin, made its way across her face and Relena couldn't help but notice that it looked very similar to one of Duo's. "Umm… how do I say this…?" She looked towards the sky, thinking for a second; Duo in the meanwhile, planted a kiss on her neck. "Duo!" Hilde moaned and shrugged her shoulders to remove his lips from her collarbone.

"Just tell them babe, or else I will." Duo told her.

"Okay, well, Relena…" Relena frowned, she could feel the anticipation building up inside of her, "…I'm PREGNANT!"

Relena's jaw dropped as she stared at her best friend, and then down to the barely noticeable bump that had replaced her usually toned and flat stomach.

"OH MY GOD!" She squealed and pulled Hilde into a tight but rather gentle embrace.

Trowa smiled, this was the first time that he had seen her so happy in what had seemed like a _very _long time.

"Congratulations!" He told Duo, his face breaking out into a true smile, Duo just grinned back at him.

"Thanks man." His eyebrows furrowed as he looked as though he was pondering, "Do you know whether Heero's coming?"

Trowa shook his head and glanced somewhat nervously back to Relena who had tensed in Hilde's arms. She pulled back, and smiled insincerely at them.

"Well shall we go inside?" She asked Trowa. Trowa nodded and once again lifted Relena's bags.

"I'll talk to you later, Hilde." Relena told her friend, whilst giving her another hug.

"Ok, Lena!" Hilde said, and grabbing her husband's hand, they set off in the opposite direction from the mansion.

Trowa and Relena strolled leisurely up the stairs to the Winner Mansion and were about to open the main entrance doors when they were pulled open by Zechs.

"Sister!" He greeted her and pulled her into a brotherly embrace, Relena frowned, he hadn't done this in a very long time.

"Why, Relena, I didn't know you were coming." Noin greeted her from behind Zechs.

"Oh, if it isn't my favourite sister-in-law." Relena told her, stepping into her embrace. Noin chuckled.

"You mean… you're only sister in law." Noin glanced behind Relena, "Hello Trowa, how are you."

"Good thanks," he told her quickly as Relena stepped away from Noin to look at him, "Yourself?"

"I'm great." Noin told him kindly. "Why don't you two come inside? We'll find Quatre and find out which rooms you are both allocated. I would show you, but this place is huge, I've only been here two days and I've been lost numerous times."

Zechs stepped out of the way, to let the pair in, and then sauntered off, to let his wife and sister find Quatre. Relena frowned after him, noting his peculiar behaviour.

"What's up with him? He's acting so strange." Relena asked Noin.

"Oh, Zechs? Well, he's been acting weird ever since he found out that Heero had accepted the invitation to come here." Trowa winced involuntarily, and turned around to face Relena who had frozen on the spot.

"Relena?" Noin questioned, also turning around to stare at the stationary girl.

"Huh?" Relena asked, snapping out of her stupor. 'Oh my god, he _is_ coming.'

"Relena? Trowa?" Quatre emerged from a room to the left of the corridor. "I didn't think that you two were coming, but I am so glad you came. Relena, maybe you could talk to Dorothy, something's bothering her and she won't tell me what, every time I ask her what's wrong, she gets into a strop with me." Quatre pulled a frustrated hand through his platinum blonde hair and turned to smile at Trowa, his closest friend, who nodded in return.

"I will talk to her, don't worry." Relena glanced around, "Where is she any-"

"Quatre?" A deep masculine voice called throughout the corridors. That voice made Relena's blood run cold and her heart speed up rapidly in her chest until it was thumping against the side of her ribcage.

Relena spun around, only to have her thoughts confirmed.

She watched the young man with dark unruly brown hair and piercing prussian blue eyes stride up the corridor towards them.

'Heero…'

* * *

_"I want you to hate me as much as I loved you" – Jux Czar_

Wayhey! Heero is BACK! lol... yeah... i didn't expand on much on this chapter because i was just clearing a few things up that i hadn't put in.

But yeah... next chapter should be a better one lol.

Please review!

Love ya'll

Allura


	6. Meeting again

**Between Love and Hate**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gundam Wing, but I do own this story... which isn't that great of an accomplishment but shh...

**A/N** - Sorry for the slightly longer than usual wait. This chapter was kind of difficult. However, all is well ,becasue it's here now and is not even shorter than the rest! (It's five o'clock in the morning... i have to wake up soo, and i havent even been to bed (cries)) So sorry if i'm not talkative...

burgandy3721 - lmao! Oh my... dorothy certainly wouldn't be too please with that comment, but i liked... very funny lol!Umm still... no info about the final pairings lol! Thanks for the review! And i'm sure people will give you a break during exams... i will lol.

Ari - lol... okay here's more! Thanks for the review!

RayxJade - Lol... (i think the drinks have been spiked... all i seem to be doing is gigglind, or maybe thats the overtiredness) I'm glad you love the story, no really i am. My exams are still keeping my free time very limited at the minute, but im trying to catch up on your story! It's great so far! (smiles) Thank you for the review.

Jamie A.(A beautiful disaster?) - Hey thanks for reading, i'm glad that my fic has inspired you to start reading GW fics again (smiles) And thank you very much for the compliments and the review, i hope you continue reading.

RelenaDorlinYuy1- Don't we all lol... Matt sucks! (throws rocks at Matthew) But yeah thanks for the review, please keep reading!

miroku-has-darkness- Umm yeah, sorry about that... i changed it though!

charlie00 - Lol... you make my day with your hilarious comments lol.yah, your fic is great. really, keep it up Charlie! Thanks for the review!

GundamPilot00 - You're not bad at reviews lol, i'm just glad you reviewed at all, it was very nice of you lol, thank you very much!

Rin Amaru - Lol, that's why i stopped there lol... it's fun to get reviews like that (joke) lol... no it had to end there! Thanks for te review!

Tanya6 -Thank you sooo much for all of the lovely reviews, it was great of you to review through each chapter (smiles) Lol... yeah... thanks for the review, hope i didn't keep ya too long.

edhel-tarien - Indeed he is in trouble.lol. Thanks so much for the compliments and the review!

sonia - Glad you weren't disappointed lol! Thanks for the review! (smiles)

kris - Wait no longer... lol, thanks for the review

Eva Maverx - Lol, maybe... just wait and see, lol thanks for the review, hope ya keep reading!

**Chapter five: Meeting again**

Heero walked towards his old friends, taking moderately large strides but he halted suddenly at the sound of someone calling out his name. He turned around to face Nicola, who was scurrying down the long corridor to catch up to him, her long dark hair floating around her shoulders as she moved. He smiled lightly and waited patiently for her, and as soon as she was close enough, he slipped his hand gently into hers and turned around to face his friends again.

To say that they were surprised would have been an understatement. They stared at him, somewhat confused, with widened eyes and mouths agape. Heero frowned slightly at their actions, and watched, waiting for them to snap out of their dazes.

"This is Nicola." He told them in his monotonous voice. Nicola smiled at each of them in turn.

"Nikki, actually," she corrected, she glanced around them, scanning Heero's long time friends carefully, and was shocked to come face to face with a pair of rather cold and angry cerulean blue eyes. They glistened at her dangerously, with a somewhat threatening appearance; however, Nicola was not faltered in any way.

"Umm… it's nice to meet you Nico- Nikki." Quatre said, breaking the awkward silence that had settled amongst them, he glanced back up to Heero quickly and then back to Nikki again.

"Yes it is… very nice to meet you." Noin told her, thrusting her hand forward, Nicola stared at her hand for a second, warily, before placing her hand within it and shaking gently. "Do I know you from somewhere? You look somewhat familiar."

"You've probably seen me before, "Nikki paused, and smiled at Hilde, "My full name is Nicola de Rivera." She told them, her English powerfully accented with her Spanish tone.

"The- The Nicola de Rivera?" Quatre asked, feeling unsure of whether he was asking the right questions, "The model?"

"Yes, that's correct." Nikki answered, feeling embarrassed.

"Oh," Quatre said, running his eyes over her again. "Ouch." An agitated Relena nudged him sharply in the ribs, stopping his gaze from lingering on the girl any longer.

Heero sighed, finding the conversation tiresome, and ran a hand through his unruly hair.

"It's nice to see you again Quatre, Noin, Trowa…" He paused; coming upon the form of the girl that he had been trying to avoid for the last three years… 'Relena,' he nodded his head, silently in her direction.

Relena looked unimpressed by this, and only glared at him, as if waiting for something else to be said.

"Where's Duo?" Heero asked Quatre, ignoring Relena's hostile glares.

"He's… I don't actually know. I can never keep track of everyone in this house." He chuckled good-naturedly and met Heero's gaze. "Would you like me to show you to your rooms?" He asked him, and then turned slowly to Relena, waiting for them to answer.

"Yes please," Relena answered, and Heero nodded his head in agreement.

Quatre started down the hall, after giving Nikki one last curious glance, towards the large marble staircase.

Heero and Nikki followed, Heero sliding his hand out of hers to wrap around her waist as they walked.

Trowa pushed Relena gently, after the others, and she snapped out of her daze, turning around to glare into the emerald eyes that had broke her from her reveries. But as she glanced towards the others, she followed them reluctantly, Trowa following close behind her with her bag.

They climbed up two grand sets of staircases before they finally came to the floor on which they had been allocated their rooms. Quatre stopped at one of doors and Heero glared at the varnished timber.

"This, Heero, would be your room. I take it you two are sharing a room? Yes?" Quatre asked inquisitively, raising an eyebrow towards Heero and Nikki.

"Yes." Heero answered, not bothering to explain, it was after all, self-explanatory.

Quatre unlocked the door with his large set of keys and smiled to them; Heero grabbed both his and Nikki's bags and walked into the room, inspecting it with interest.

"Whoa, it's beautiful-" Nikki turned towards Quatre who was still standing in the doorway, leaning heavily against the doorframe, "Mr Winner was it?"

"Yes, Quatre Raberba Winner, but you can just call me Quatre," he straightened himself up before sighing gently, "Well, I'll leave you two to adjust to your room and settle down. Please meet downstairs in the lobby again at around six o'clock, I will then show you around the main rooms to help you become acquainted with the household. After that we shall have dinner." He nodded his head towards them, bowing slightly before disappearing behind the closing door.

Heero studied the room. It was decorated with such elegance; the wallpaper was a dark royal blue with a faint silver line, bordering the top and bottom. The floor was covered with strips of expensive mahogany wood, polished and varnished stylishly, and there was a large four-poster, canopied bed sitting in the centre of the room.

Heero sighed, it was so like Quatre to do this, have everything decorated so sophisticatedly. He glanced over to Nikki, who was wandering around the room, studying everything with wondrous amazement. For a girl as wealthy as she was, she was impressed quite easily. He noticed that she was scrutinizing a small lamp in the corner of the room, which cast a warm welcoming, but dull light across the room, slightly illuminating her face.

"Do you want to start unpacking now?" He asked her, she started at the sound of his voice, and jumped around to face him, "What's wrong?" He asked distractedly.

"Nothing, I just… forgot you were there," she answered honestly.

"You forgot I was here?" He walked towards her slowly, his face showing that he was not impressed by her answer, she giggled.

"Yeah well, all you do is stand there silently; it isn't hard for someone to forget your presence is in the room," Heero was now very close to her and she took a small step forward, smiling up at him, "I'll unpack once I'm finished this."

"Finished what?" Heero frowned down at her questioningly, and as her lips flew against his, he tensed, his eyes opening wide with shock, but he eventually relaxed, and kissed her back, wrapping his arms securely around her small body.

"That," she told him whilst pulling out of his arms and moving towards her suitcase, with intentions of unpacking. Heero glanced towards his own, rather small bag and compared it with hers. There was a sizeable difference. He sighed, knowing that it would probably take her a while before she was finished and headed toward the door. Once reaching the handle, he turned back to Nikki, who was busily unpacking her clothes.

"I'm going for a walk, I shouldn't be too long." He told her and opened the door. Once outside, he was greeted by a cold silence. He frowned; looking up and down the corridors, locking everything he laid his eyes upon safely in his memory.

He was intently staring around him as he walked down the long corridor, with intentions of exploring the place and getting to know every small corner and object off by heart, but his mind was drifting. He had found that this sort of thing had not happened for a long time. But now that _she_ was back, it was a whole different matter, he was losing focus again and his thoughts kept drifting back to that _memorable_ moment three years ago. He grew frustrated just thinking about it, 'how could she have done such a thing?' He would never have expected something like that to have come from Relena Peacecraft of all people. He made a mental note to never underestimate Relena and her mysteriously deceiving mind again.

Heero was so preoccupied with his musings that for once, his finely tuned ears did not pick up the light patter of feet running quickly towards where he was now headed.

He turned a corner sharply, his eyes now glaring at the ground beneath him, and his head bent down. He felt something suddenly bash into his strong chest and he stumbled back a few feet, gasping in surprise and staring at the small form lying at his feet. The great Heero Yuy, for once in his life, had been caught off guard.

Relena glared up at him with wide, shocked eyes before trying to get up. Heero thrust a hand towards her, and she glared at it for a few moments, cautiously, before accepting his offer and taking a hold of his hand.

Heero pulled her to her feet roughly, and with a little bit more force then he had initially intended. She came swinging into him, her body closely pressing against his, so close that he could feel the unsteady rise of her chest and the rapid beats of her heart. Heero chanced a quick glance towards her eyes, and once she had locked gazes with him, he couldn't seem to look away.

He suddenly felt extremely warm, with his body pressed against hers, and his heart rate quickened considerably. He silently cursed the effects that she was having on him.

"Umm, sorry," she told him, her eyes now averted down, whilst she was brushing off her clothes.

"Don't worry about it," Heero replied, his voice was emotionless and devoid of any life. He started to walk past her, to carry on exploring the unknowns of the large house, but she stopped him.

"Heero," Relena grabbed his arm loosely, "Look, three years ago… I… uh… just wanted to apologi-"

"You know what?" Heero asked her, interrupting her speech, his voice was icy and hostile, "Save it. I don't care. I don't want to talk to _you _at the minute," he pulled his arm from her grasp and without shooting her another look, or even another glare, he continued down the hall.

Relena stood, stunned, watching him slowly disappear from her sight.

-8-

Once Heero had rounded the corner, and was safely out of her sight, he sighed deeply. He knew what he had done was cold and hostile and something that Nikki had been relentlessly trying to drill out of him for the past three years, but he just didn't feel ready to deal with _her_ yet.

She had lost him the best job he had probably ever had; she gave numerous people a false reason to hate him… Zechs mainly… and she made him feel… well he didn't quite understand what it was that she made him feel, but what he did know, was that he didn't like it.

He didn't like how his temperature would suddenly escalate rapidly once she appeared, or how anytime that she would send him one of those fleeting glances, his heart would crazily start hammering in his chest… No, he didn't like any of these.

However, he had one thing to be proud of, and that was the fact that he didn't let others see how she affected him.

Now, his only problem was working out why, exactly, his body reacted in this way to her minor actions.

Running a tanned hand through his thick unruly hair, he started walking down the hall again. He was going to explore, maybe that would clear his mind.

-8-

Relena stood in shock, staring at the end of the corridor where Heero had just disappeared. 'What just happened?' she asked herself unsurely.

'He couldn't possibly be still sore about the whole job thing, right?' She sighed, and walked in the opposite direction from him.

There were so many things that she had wanted to say. And Heero showing up with a girlfriend certainly didn't help matters, in fact it had made everything ten times harder for her.

She could never have pictured Heero with a girlfriend. It was one of those things, which she could just _not_ imagine. It was just beyond reasonable in her mind. It could never happen.

But it did. It happened, Heero had acquired a girlfriend, and the world had still not ended. Yet.

The weird and yet annoying thing was, that she was in fact, jealous. Not of Nikki, no, no, she didn't _want _Heero. She was jealous of Heero, because he had had a good and eventful three years away from her. He was the happiest she had ever seen him and his relationship seemed very stable, there was no abuse, no hatred, and certainly no jealously. They loved each other, so much that you could nearly feel it.

She sighed and pulled her head back so that she was staring at the ceiling, before shaking herself and running a hand through her hair, frustrated.

He had obtained everything that she hadn't in those three years. He had obtained everything that she had wanted to obtain. Love, in a loving and happy relationship.

'Where did I go wrong?' She asked herself.

Where had she gone wrong were Heero had gone right. Was this her punishment for getting him fired? If it was, it certainly wasn't the fairest of punishment. Beatings and verbal abuse was certainly _not_ a justified punishment for such a simple thing, which she hadn't even meant to happen.

And most of all, in the end… _he_ washappy.

'Life isn't fair.'

Then there was that _thing _that happened to her every time that she was around him. That frisson… the shiver that she always got, running down her spine every time she met his eyes. The weird feeling she got, as if her heart was fluttering in her chest, whenever he was in close proximities. All the things that didn't seem to effect him, not even when they were so close to each other, like they had been only two minutes ago, when she had stared into those oceans of blue eyes. The eyes that had seemed so emotionless and cold; he had still felt nothing but hatred for her.

What did it matter anyway? It wasn't as if she liked _him _that way.

Relena made a mental note to stay away from him for a while, for two reasons. One, being that she needed to give him time to cool off, as seeing her again had obviously disturbed him greatly, and two, being the fact that she did _not _like those feelings that emerged from within her whenever he was near.

It was too much for her to cope with.

She would just apologize later on in the week. Maybe then, he'd be slightly more willing to listen.

* * *

_'Never hate your enemies...it will cloud your thinking.' --Michael Corleon Godfather III_

Ahhh... eyes threatening to close on me, so i cannot say much lol. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and i look forward to waking up tomorrow... or in a few hours, to checking to see if i have any glorious reviews... i really love em, no joke, they make my day... every day! I LOVE you guys! (sorry for any typing errors... very, very tired... stupid exams)

So please review... and show me that you love me too! hehe!

Love ya'll

Allura


	7. Unconcealed wounds

**Between Love and Hate**

**Disclaimer:** Yeah, you know it already, nothing has changed, so i still do not own Gundam Wing.

A/N - I am so sorry guys, can't do any personal shout outs to my amazing reviewers, cause i'm going to Salou in a few hours and must pack my bags lol. Yeah, so i'm sorry this won't be updated for more than a week.

But yeah thank you SO MUCH for reviewing, you guys rock... and i have more than FIFTY reviews... i'm astonished, i truly didn't think you gus would enjoy this, but you do... and i'm so happy... HAPPY, happy, happy...

As for my holiday, i am taking a notebook with me and therefore making notes and plans for the next few chapters, so don;t worry, it shouldn't hold me back too much.

Love you guys soooooooooooooooooo much... enjoy!

**Chapter six: Unconcealed wounds**

Relena woke up, still exhausted from the tiring day that she had strained through yesterday. Although, it was a great relief for her not to wake up in her own house, in fear of what was to come.

Yesterday, as promised, Quatre had showed the group around the mansion; it had been a wearing tour, for the mansion was larger than it had seemed which was saying a lot. It had really been quite an uneventful time, apart from meeting the rest of the group and seeing their reactions to Heero's new girlfriend, not much else had happened.

When meeting Nikki, everyone had been shocked, stunned, and perplexed. Asking them if their eyes were deceiving them, but they had taken to her quite easily. Duo had at first, muttered something under his breath about Heero, and seemed to stay clear out of the way of Nikki. However, he soon took to her quickly enough when she had found his many humorous jokes highly amusing.

Even Relena, who was most likely, the most reluctant to talk to her, found that she couldn't help herself liking her just a _tiny _bit. Although, she would never admit that to anyone, why she wouldn't she didn't know, but she was pretty sure that it had something to do with the mixed emotions her body brewed when around Heero.

'I really need to sort myself out,' she thought, climbing gradually out of bed. She glanced towards the curtains and noticed that they were drawn.

'I don't remember closing the curtains… or the window for that matter…' she stared at it for a few seconds longer before brushing it off as being her overactive imagination.

Relena started, and jumped quickly out of her bed as soon as she had heard the heavy knocking of knuckles, hammering against the elegant oak door.

"Umm… who is it?" She asked, curiously, draping her dressing gown across her shoulders, before stumbling, still sleepily, to the door.

"It's me, Trowa, are you ready for your breakfast," his voice was soft and calm as Relena opened the door to stare at him from the two small gaps between her eyelids that she had eventually managed to pry open. The brightness of the house was truly astonishing; there must have been half a dozen windows in her room, and it had blinded her as she had woken, even though the curtains had been drawn.

"Yeah… sure, I'm ready," she told him drowsily. Trowa chuckled at her and her eyes snapped open to glare at him in wonderment.

"Do you know what you're wearing?" He asked her, "I doubt that there's much on under that dressing gown of yours, do you really think that it is wise to walk around this place like that?"

Relena glanced down at herself, and sighed inwardly, he was right, as always. Suddenly, she noticed the tray that Trowa was holding in his steady hands.

Trowa, noticing the direction of her confused gaze, also looked to the tray.

"Your breakfast…my lady." He told her, bowing down to her slightly without losing his grasp on the tray.

Relena gasped and taking a step back into her room, she let Trowa inside. He acknowledged her actions with a polite smile – well as much of a smile as you could get from Trowa – and walked in, setting the tray down on her dresser.

"Trowa, you didn't have to… bring it up here," she told him, biting her lip.

"Well, I tried knocking on your door earlier, when breakfast was being served, but you were out cold, and I figured you would be hungry. So I asked the chefs if I could have a tray to bring this up to you."

"Thanks Trowa, that was very… kind of you," she felt like she was stumbling upon her words. Why couldn't she speak…? It was only _Trowa._

Trowa's lips curved slightly into a smile as he set himself down upon her unmade bed.

Relena made herself over to the tray and lifted a piece of the toast, taking a bite out of it.

"Good?" Trowa asked upon seeing the delighted expression on her face.

"Mmm hmm… Quatre sure is getting his moneys worth with those chefs." A silence settled amongst the young pair as Relena finished off her remaining breakfast.

Once finished she walked over to her bed, and settled down beside Trowa, laying on her back and staring at the ceiling.

"What are you thinking about?" Relena asked him after a short period.

"Hn," Trowa answered, "Why do you want to know?"

"I don't know, you look… thoughtful I guess,"

"…" Relena was met by silence.

"I was just thinking," He answered after a while, "about how I could have prevented you from getting hurt,"

"Trowa-" Relena started. She glanced at him, to find him staring intently back at her, a mixed look of some anger and remorse, obvious upon his handsome features. It always surprised her when Trowa would do this to her, show her his feelings. She knew that he would never do it for anyone else, and she wondered, secretly, whether he knew that he was doing it, "You know that this was not your fault, it was mine mainly, I mean, I was the one who was stupid enough to stay with him that whole time. While thinking, 'he'll change; he's just going through a hard time'. I was so foolish."

"I was your _bodyguard_ Relena, I, of all people, should have done something about it. Maybe I should have pushed you a little further to get the truth. I just kept thinking that you would come to me in your own time." Trowa frowned slightly, and averted his gaze away from her, staring pensively at the far wall.

"Trowa-" Relena started, but cut off, not knowing what she was going to say.

Trowa turned around to stare at her, and her eyes darted quickly from the ceiling to meet his. She held his gaze for a few minutes until Trowa suddenly moved forward on the bed, balancing his weight upon his right hand and leaning over, his left hand, hovering slightly above her cheek.

Relena gasped and held her breath, glaring up at Trowa's face that was merely centimetres above hers.

He gazed at her, but she noticed, faintly, that his eyes were directed, not on her eyes but on her cheekbone. Relena frowned confusedly. 'What is going on?' she asked herself.

"What is _that_?" Trowa asked, his tone rising slightly in sudden anger.

Relena released the breath she had been holding and nearly jumped up, but realised that she couldn't as Trowa was hovering on top of her, staring down at her cheek with such intensity. She clasped a hand over the area of her face that he was staring at, self-consciously, and slid herself from underneath him, climbing off the bed and scurrying over to the mirror situated on her dressing table.

As she glared at her reflection, she realised that she was wearing no make up. This, she realised, was a very bad thing. There was a dark blue bruise forming on her left cheek, where Matthew had _kindly _decided to take out his frustration on her with his powerful right fist.

Trowa walked up to her, standing behind her and stared at the bruise from over her shoulder. Relena turned away from his annoyed gaze in the mirror, only to face Trowa himself, 'that was smart'.

Relena had never seen Trowa like this before.

Ever.

His cool, calm and collected exterior had dissipated into one of anger and annoyance and his eyes glistened fiercely with an infuriated fire that she had never seen before.

She couldn't quite put her finger on just what was driving him so… well unlike Trowa. It was mystifying.

She didn't really believe that Matthew and his doings were pushing him to this limit. There had to be more to it. 'But what?'

"That must have been a hard hit." Trowa glared at her, "How could you hide this from me?" He growled, "How could I have been so oblivious?"

The last part, Relena figured, must have been directed towards himself, but all the same, she found herself grimacing in self-hatred. It was she that had caused this, Trowa now found that he was untrustworthy, unworthy of being her bodyguard and her friend. In addition, it was all her fault, for she had hid it from him for so long.

"Trowa, forget it," Relena snapped, taking her anger, which her self-hatred was powering, out on him.

"No, Relena I can't, I wish I could, but I can't." He sighed and walked away from her, towards the opposite side of the room, "Contrary to your belief, I do care about you. I don't see you as 'just my job', you're my friend, and I do care."

Relena watched him, pacing up and down the room; it must have been his way off releasing his anger. She sat down on the bed, hoping that he would calm down soon, and thought about what he was saying, 'what did he mean by 'I care' of course he cares, he's not Heero,' but for some reason she felt that there was something more to those two simplistic words, something deeper.

Trowa finally stopped pacing, and placed himself down on the bed beside Relena.

"We can get him for this you know. Together, all we need is your statement and some proof."

"No," Relena answered, "we won't do anything. You don't want to mess with him Trowa."

"Relena! We cannot let him get away with this."

"Trowa, we're not doing anything okay? We'll just leave it for now."

Trowa stared at her, and with reluctance, dropped the subject.

"I think that for today, we're all just relaxing here in the mansion and getting accustomed and settled down. Is that okay with you? I mean there's a beach only half a mile away-"

"Trowa," Relena silenced him, she had never known Trowa to be one to ramble. What was up with him? "It's okay, I'm fine with that, but maybe this evening, we could go for a walk somewhere?"

"Yes okay."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while before Relena realised she was still sitting in only her dressing gown and underwear.

"Uhh… Trowa?"

"Yes?"

"Would you mind leaving so that I can get changed?" Trowa turned around to face her, a small smirk crawling across his face, before nodding and leaving the room.

Relena glared at the door, trying to analyse her own thoughts and Trowa's abnormal actions.

Sighing, she walked over to her closet and pulled out a casual outfit, after changing, and applying a small amount of make-up – mostly to cover her bruises – she left the room in search of her friends.

Relena found her way, through the strange house, to the main living area, were all the pilots and her friends were lounging peacefully.

"Lena, you're up early!" Duo cried as she stepped through the large heavy oak doors, winking and grinning at her, he helped himself to what looked like chocolate on toast.

Relena grimaced at the toast and after noticing this Duo glared at her.

"What? It's nice, you should try it… some stuff called 'Nutella'," He laughed gently and after finishing his last bite, licked his fingers clean.

"Actually Duo, usually I never sleep in till this time. It's atrocious. I wish one of you had have woken me." Relena told the braided man.

"_I_ tried to," Trowa said entering the room with that mysterious new smirk of his.

"Hmph. Well you could have tried harder then." She replied, huffing slightly, and placing herself on the sofa where Trowa was currently resting.

"Morning Lena," Hilde greeted as she bounced into the room – literally - and threw herself into her husband's lap - again literally – laying a big kiss onto his lips. Duo grinned manically and winked at her, before licking his lips.

Relena sighed, 'Them two are so cute together and look how much they love each other.'

Duo pulled Hilde further towards him.

"Duo, did you know that you have a little bit of chocolate on your lips?" Hilde told him and then, grinning mischievously, added, "Let me help you clean it off," she leant in, and licked Duo's lips tenderly. Duo, who was shocked at her sudden action, relaxed and then pulled her into a long passionate engrossing kiss. Hilde's hands wrapped around his neck hastily whilst Duo's tangled themselves in Hilde's short dark blue locks.

Relena blushed and then diverted her eyes away from the fervent couple.

"Eww guys, get a room," Quatre told them, scowling humorously, as he entered the room, an irritated Dorothy following close behind.

As everyone settled into the room, Heero walked through the door, his Spanish girlfriend giggling and holding onto him tightly. Heero smiled at them, and placed himself on a sofa opposite Relena, Nikki settling down _very _close to him.

Relena glared unknowingly, and Quatre, sensing the growing tension, cleared his throat.

"Okay, did everybody have a good sleep?" He asked, everyone nodded, "Great, today we don't really have an itinerary, so you may all do as you please and just relax around the house. However, for this week, we have a packed schedule, I will tell you more about it tomorrow, but I _can_ say that we are taking a trip down to the beach, which I daresay will be great fun. But for now, you are free to do as you wish." After noticing the devilish glint in Duo's eyes, he added, "Just please… don't trash the house."

Relena chanced a quick glance at Heero, only to find that his eyes were directed towards her.

Once catching her gaze, Heero's eyes hardened, becoming stony and dead. He got up, and interlinked his hand with his girlfriend's, pulling her closely into him, and kissing her forehead.

Relena glared, coldly, at him until he had left the room. 'To do god knows what with his _stupid _Spanish sweetheart'. She faintly wondered what they would actually do to amuse themselves for the day. But once stumbling upon unwanted, repelling thoughts and images of them… in bed… she grimaced, and pushed the thoughts out of her head, looking to Trowa who was still sitting beside her.

"Actually Trowa, can I take you up on that offer to go for a walk now?" She asked. Trowa smiled gently at her before standing up and pulling her kindly to her feet.

"Of course, let's go." Trowa slipped his hand down to the small of her back and pushed her slightly, towards the door.

Relena shivered as an intense spark made its way through her body, flowing rapidly through her veins and warming her body. 'How could I have gotten that feeling from a simple touch from Trowa?' She asked herself as Trowa guided her towards the large oak double doors.

* * *

_'Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control.' Arthur Schoperhauer (what a mouthful)_

Thank you for reading my beautifulicious peoples... and please do review!

Love ya'll

Allura


	8. Small talk and long walks

**Between Love and Hate**

**Disclaimer: Ugh... I'm getting bored of this... I don't own Gundam Wing thing... blaa blaa blaa...**

**A/N: **Agghhh... it's so late, i should be in bed, but because i have left this chapter on hold for so long (i was on holiday, give me a break) i promised myself that i would update tonight.

To let you guys jump quickly to the story, i will save you all from the reviewer comments, however i have to say that i LOVE you guys, i know you've heard this quite a lot from me, but i honestly do, you guys rock my little fictional world! Over SEVENTY reviews... like whoa... really whoa... I'm speechless! For ONCE!

And without further interruption from the annoying author...

**Chapter seven: Small talk and long walks**

Relena walked, beside Trowa, through the large picturesque gardens of Quatre's mansion. As she stepped on each new patch of grass, it crunched lightly under her weight, flattening and leaving small footprints on the lawn.

"Do you think that maybe we should be walking on the paths?" Relena asked Trowa. They had been silently walking for ten minutes before she had decided to voice her thoughts and break the silence. Although the silence was rather comfortable, she felt that it had dragged on a little too long.

"Maybe," Trowa answered, "But I don't think that Quatre will mind _too_ much if one of his many gardens isn't _completely_ perfect."

"Hmm, okay,"

Once again, a silence settled and Relena decided to leave it be, as she saw no point in pressing it further, it was apparent to her, that it had just ended.

She glanced around her slowly, enjoying and admiring the beauty of the many foreign and expensive plants that scattered the perimeters. She wondered, briefly, how much money Quatre had spent on developing these large gardens. There had to be approximately thirty gardens with many expensive plants, not to mention the wages of the gardening staff and the cost of the equipment.

"So…" Trowa said, tugging Relena out of her muses with a start.

"So what?" Relena asked him, turning her head to stare up into glittering, emerald eyes. She felt her heart pace increase as she saw the way that he was looking at her, and had to turn away suddenly in order to drown her sudden impulse to kiss him.

'What is up with me? First Heero, now Trowa?' she thought, silently.

"What are you thinking about?" Trowa asked her, not bothered by her actions.

Relena was silent as they walked further away from the mansion, not daring to trust her voice.

"Come on," He said, grabbing her arm, but still walking, "it's only fair…"

"Huh?" Relena, forgetting herself with his confusing words, shot her head up from the ground to stare at him. Her face and eyes showing her bewilderment.

"I told you," Trowa said, grinning slightly. Relena recognised this grin and knew instantly that he had something up his sleeve, "What I was thinking earlier, it's only fair that you tell me what you're thinking now, right?"

"Fine," Relena answered, reluctantly, letting out a heavy sigh, "I was just thinking about how stubborn Heero is."

"Hmph," Trowa snorted, "I thought that _you_ of all people would have known that by now."

"I do, of course I do… it's just that… I thought that he would be over _this_ by now."

"He is," Trowa answered, "He's just not over _you_."

"Huh?"

"Never mind." Trowa answered quickly, ending the conversation.

"Um…" Relena started, staring up at Trowa's face rather confusedly, "…okay."

The silence, yet again, settled between the two young adults, as they walked towards the dark forest ahead of them.

Once reaching the edge of the forest, Relena stopped in her steps to turn and stare at Trowa, who was staring strangely into the darkness that developed underneath the tall canopies of the trees.

A few stray strands of light, from the setting sun, shone down in small single rays, through the gaps in the leaves, casting peculiar red and orange patterns across the leaf littered floor of the forest.

"Are we going in there?" Relena asked him, hoping that they were not; she didn't like the look of it in there. It was a little too _eerie_ for her liking.

"Why not?" Trowa answered, before turning around to look at her, "Unless, of course, you don't want to."

He had said it somewhat tauntingly, and Relena felt the strong impulsion to say 'yes', even though, she knew, that she _really_ didn't want to. However, he was teasing her, and she felt that throughout the previous events that had occurred recently, she had become weak and timid in his eyes. She had to prove him wrong.

She straightened up, putting on a brave face, and frowned at him.

"Of course I want to. Why would you think that?… I'm not _scared_ or anything." She answered, and without waiting for a reply from him, she sauntered into the darkness of the forest.

She followed the feeble path that had been made out by the feet of many people trampling through the area, and didn't stop until she felt Trowa's strong hands grasp around her upper arm.

She glanced down at the long muscular hand that had her bound in its hold, before staring up at its owner, questioningly.

"Not so fast Relena, we don't know our way around this place. It's best to make out our bearings first." He told her, tightening his grip on her arm, as if he thought that she would run away if he were to let go.

"Yeah okay, just Trowa?" she dropped her voice to a whisper, careful not to disturb the silent nature surrounding them.

"Yeah?" He asked her, also dropping his voice to a whisper.

"Could you let go of my arm, you're hurting me." She told him.

Immediately, Trowa let go of her and pushed her light jacket down, so that he could gain a clear view of her right upper arm.

He stared at the dark purple – almost black – bruise that was forming on her arm, and scowled deeply.

"Matthew?" He asked, angrily.

Relena nodded her head slightly, before dropping her gaze to the floor. The topic of her and her former abusive boyfriend was growing tiresome.

Trowa, getting the hint, dropped the subject and started scanning the area around him. After a while, he spoke up.

"Okay, so that way," He pointed towards an area, that seemed a lot darker than the area they were in now, "Is north. If we go that way, it will be easier to find our way back." He looked down at her enquiringly, "What do you think?"

"I don't know," Relena shrugged, "You're the master at this, do whatever you think is best."

Trowa grimaced at her, before putting his hand on her back, and guiding her north. Relena shuddered once again, from the intensity of his touch and the effects that he was having on her. She also shuddered because, as she looked towards where they were heading, she wished she had protested against coming into there in the first place.

They walked 'north' for about fifteen minutes in silence before they entered the darkest part of the forest. It seemed that there were no gaps in the trees at all. The trees were so closely knit that the canopies blocked any light from emerging through the leaves at all. It was dark, very dark, in fact, too dark for Relena to be comfortable. She couldn't even make out her new shoes in the darkness that had swallowed the two of them.

A gentle rustling in nearby bushes startled Relena, as they were walking cautiously through the deep woods, so much that she grabbed Trowa's hand, tightly, most likely cutting off his blood supply, and wrapping her arms around him, snuggled her head into his chest.

Trowa, taken back at her sudden proximity, stared down at her small delicate form; he could just about make her out in the darkness, and his eyesight was perfect, in light and dark, proving how dark that it really was in there.

"Can we leave now?" Relena asked gently, her voice muffled, as she was pressed up against Trowa's hard chest.

Trowa pulled her gently away from him to get a good look at her face. Once he caught her gaze, he smiled as he noticed the faint blush across her cheeks. She obviously wasn't to comfortable with the close proximity either.

"Yes, of course. We didn't have to come in here in the first place. Relena, you don't have to prove yourself to me." He told her, as if he had known exactly what had raced through her mind earlier, "I already know that you are not weak. In fact, I think that you're very brave, you handled the situation with Matthew well." He smiled at her before adding, with a scowl, "But that does not mean that I am happy with you for keeping it from me."

Relena embraced him, no longer feeling as scared as she had been earlier.

"Okay. Let's just leave before we get so far into this place that we get lost." She told him.

"Hmm, you're right. I wouldn't want to be stuck in here with _you_." He answered swiftly.

It took Relena a few minutes to realise the full meaning behind the message, and once she did, she gazed up at him in shock.

"It was a joke Relena." He told her, reassuringly, yet still laughing slightly.

"Exactly, you, Trowa Barton, just cracked a joke." It was Relena's turn to laugh, as she faintly noticed, the irritated scowl that passed across his handsome face.

They continued to walk through the forest, this time in the opposite direction, in a serene quietness. Relena, feeling a little more secure than earlier and a little giddier, due to Trowa's joke, was able to walk, calmly beside her silent friend.

She stole a quick glance at him as they walked through a lightened area. In the moonlight, she could make out the strong planes of his face, and the one glittering, scintillating emerald eye that was not shaded in darkness by his unique bangs.

She could also make out the breadth of his strong shoulders, the vee where his black polo shirt fell open, revealing olive coloured, flawless skin and slightly revealing his well-defined abs.

Relena felt her face heat up and quickly tore her eyes away from him – which was surprisingly hard – and back to where they were headed. Upon noticing that they were once again, stumbling into complete darkness, she began to panic.

"Uh Trowa?" She started.

"Yes I know," Trowa answered her quickly. His face was one of confusion and puzzlement, as he scanned the area, "I don't understand. This is the same way that we came, why are we entering darkness again?"

Relena never answered for two reasons. One being that she didn't know the answer to his question, and two being that she had figured that he was mainly talking to himself.

"We may as well keep walking this way, I'm nearly one hundred percent sure that this was the way that we came," He told her quietly, "Maybe it's darker because the sun has set. After all, we have been out here quite a long time; the moon is already high in the sky."

"Okay," Relena answered worriedly, "If you're sure."

They continued walking in the pitch black darkness for a short time before another rustling in the bushes startled Relena. The rustling had been so close, and as she couldn't see what it was, she jumped, straight into Trowa, and they both staggered back a few steps.

"Sorry," She told him, in a rushed whisper.

"It's okay," He threw an arm around her shoulder, bringing her closer to him.

Although slightly anxious about their closeness, Relena was comforted by this single action, but as they walked further along, she could still here the faint rustling, which seemed to follow their every move. But she ignored it, passing it in her mind as being her paranoia.

After a while, she tugged Trowa sharply to a halt. The rustling followed on for a few seconds before too, coming to a stop. Trowa glanced down at her swiftly, having also noticed the strange noise following them through their trail.

He pushed Relena on, his arm firmly gripped around her, as if the tighter he held her, the more secure she would feel. He was even more alert now, than he was a few minutes before, as he had now realised that he wasn't the only one hearing the noise.

He stopped again after a few more paces, and upon hearing the rustling still going, he peered deeply, into the area that the sounds were coming from, silently cursing the darkness for rendering his perfect vision useless.

This time, however the rustling never stopped.

It continued.

Nearing the pair, faster and faster. Trowa glanced around him furiously, making a plan in his head.

He quickly shoved Relena to the forest floor, hoping that he wouldn't injure her in the process, before ducking and diving forward towards the sounds.

Relena gasped in shock, as she felt his strong arms force her to the ground, she stumbled a few steps forward, before colliding head first into the floor. The decomposing leaf litter beneath her luckily cushioned her fall, but she had unfortunately collapsed on her arm, pressuring all of her weight upon it. She heard a loud snap, and realised that she had mostly likely fractured a few bones in her arm, and lay still, tensing up with the throbbing pain that was now coursing rapidly up her arm.

She heard a loud grunt come from someone beside her, she recognised the voice to be Trowa's, and suddenly felt adrenaline rush through her body, enabling her to push herself from the ground and up onto her knees.

A thud from behind her made her spin around, and she heard a cry of pain clash with the sound of two very solid objects colliding with each other.

Relena hoped to god that neither of the two objects had been Trowa.

As she stood, her eyes gradually became focused with the darkness. She made out the form of a body, lying, extremely still on the ground.

She crouched down, and to her horror, found that it was, indeed, Trowa who was lying on the ground. She gasped as she noticed the very alarming wound on his head, and the crimson red blood, pouring, non-stop, from the gash.

Her heart seized up in fear, as her eyes widened and her hands immediately darted to hold his face.

"Trowa?" She asked, frantically, "Trowa…" she called again, trying to wake him from his unconsciousness.

"No… no, no, no, no, no…" She repeatedly whispered, still holding Trowa's face in her hands.

She faintly noticed the warm tears that trickled their way down her face and a quiet sob escaped her mouth. Her hands started shaking furiously as she lent in closer to Trowa, his dark -silvery in the moonlight -blood staining her pale hands.

"Trowa please… please… no…" She pleaded in a terrified whisper as she shook him, "Don't be dead," She shook him harder, and harder, until her brain had realised that he wasn't going to wake anytime soon.

She sunk back onto the ground, staring silently, at Trowa's motionless limp body.

She started having a hard time breathing, as the shock settled in.

Never in her life, had she seen so much blood, and she had seen a lot of serious injuries. She started hyperventilating as she sat staring at the man, who was just two minutes ago, holding her tightly to his body.

She reached out, touching his face and noted that it was cold. Running her hand down to his pulse, she wondered why she hadn't checked it sooner, and upon finding a slight, yet very unsteady, beat, she sighed in some form of relief.

He wasn't dead. But he soon would be if she didn't get him out of there.

Feeling very hollow, Relena pulled his heavy body closer to her, before once again, hearing that unnerving rustling from the bushes.

She looked up, to see the dark form of a burly man, hovering over her.

Upon noticing that he was holding an object in his hand, her eyes fastened on it. Noting the fact that the object was glistening in one small patch of moonlight, Relena jumped to her feet.

And screamed.

* * *

_'I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.' -- James Baldwin_

Thank you for reading, and i apologize for the wait, however this chapter is slightly longer than the rest and i hope that this chapter, overall, makes up for the wait.

And yes, it's a cliffie, and i am SERIOUSLY sorry for that... please don't hate me!

And if you can find it in your pure beautiful hearts to forgive me for that, please tell me in a review!

Love ya'll

Allura

(p.s. glad you like the quotes... it takes AGES to find half decent ones!)


	9. Please don't

**Between Love and Hate**

**Disclaimer:** Gah... I don't own Gundam Wing... So don't even think of chasing me with your law enforcement certificates!

Hello again my lubblies! This chapter has to be longest one for this fic yet, so I'm sorry to anyone out there who doesn't like long chapters! But yeah... do you know what i just realised? If we shorten 'Between Love and Hate' down to its initials, what do we get but, BLaH... hahahahaha... yeah funny huh?

**Interviewer:** Hello there Allura... now tell us, what fanfiction do you write?

**Allura:** Oh, i write BLaH... It's very detailed and informative... like any truly good fanfiction (hahaha... not)

**Interviewer:** I'm sorry, did you say... blah?

**Allura:** Yes, indeed, I did.

**Interviewer:** Riiiiiight... okay, CUT, this girl's just messing around with us...

**Allura:** But... but... no wait, it really is called BLaH!

(ahem) And I'll let you get on with the story...

**Chapter eight: Please don't **

Heero was relaxing in the lobby when he heard the high-pitched piercing scream penetrate his ears. He jumped up suddenly, startled, and tried to concentrate on where he had heard it before.

It suddenly clicked in his head.

'How could I have forgotten? That voice… that scream was the one that had gotten me fired from my previous job.'

Concentrating, once again, he tried to remember in what direction the cry had come from, and upon finding it was from the Northern regions of the land, he ran.

Dashing towards the door, he gave no explanation to Nikki on where he was going, he just ran, his heart was guiding him, and he was following.

Once outside he stumbled, down the last few steps of Quatre's mansion, in his haste to get to her. That scream, unlike the one that had departed from her lips three years ago, was real, it wasn't a play put on to get anyone into trouble. This one was a cry for help, a cry of danger, that something wasn't right.

His heart was racing in his chest as he neared the edges of the dark forest. The moons light casting silvery rays down through the gaps in the leaves, but apart from that, the place was pitch black. After glancing quickly around him, Heero darted forward, keeping to the northward direction. The whole place was silent… too silent to be natural. The birds were quiet, the crickets were still and the trees were not rustling in the gentle breeze. It was eerie and the atmosphere was heavily burdened with a sense of danger.

Feeling all of these, Heero pushed himself faster, his legs darting quickly, yet quietly, through the spaces between the large trees and bushes.

He felt like he had been running forever before he heard distant indistinct noises coming from just a little further up ahead. He crouched down slightly and deceivingly silent, he crawled through the bushes, not making a sound, and peered through a gap, scanning the area and surroundings.

His eyes rested on Relena's small form, which was unnaturally still, but moving, her arms draped above her head and her head, lolling unconsciously on her shoulders.

Studying the scene further, he came to find that there was a large man, dragging Relena by the arms, through the forest.

Pushing down his initial instincts to dive into the scene and tackle her attacker, he planned the situation in his head.

If he could somehow divert the attacker's attention, then he could strike him from behind, grab Relena and haul her to safety.

After deciding this that the plan sounded satisfactory, he waited, for a few seconds, for the perfect moment and then lunging up from his hiding spot, he struck his opponent at the back of the neck, rendering him temporarily unconscious.

He carefully lifted Relena from the ground, cradling her small delicate frame in his strong arms. She stirred slightly, as he shifted her weight in his arms, and her eyelids flickered open to display a slit of glittering cerulean blue orbs.

"Trowa…" she whispered huskily.

Heero frowned back down at her, his eyebrows furrowing down in confusion.

"Care to elaborate?" He asked, in his usual monotonous voice.

"…Over… there…" She jerked her head to the side, and Heero, following this movement with his eyes, came to find an unconscious body lying lifeless and surrounded by a dark liquid that glowed silver under the moons rays. His eyes widened as he recognised the form to be Trowa.

"Shit-" He said quietly, and unable to say anything else, he walked over to him, laying Relena down at the base of a tree, with its trunk supporting her back.

Before going to inspect the comatose Trowa, Heero turned back around to Relena,

"Are you badly hurt?" Relena shook her head in response, and to prove her point, clambered to her feet, somewhat unsteadily. Heero nodded, satisfied, and turned his full attention back to his unresponsive friend.

As he scanned over Trowa's form and inspected the injuries, he concluded that he was, indeed, in a critical state. The wound to his head was still bleeding intensely and didn't look as though it were going to come to a halt anytime soon.

Trowa's cinnamon brown hair was stained with red from the masses of blood on his forehead and his eyes were only partly closed, and from what Heero could see of them, they were dull and lifeless. Heero's heart started hammering in his chest and he felt panic set in. He hadn't felt this feeling for a very long time, in fact the last time he had felt it was when he had found out that Relena had been captured during the Mariemaia incident, but still he would _never _let this emotion show.

Heero reached out, and grabbing his cold, limp wrist, he searched anxiously for a pulse. He felt a faint throb, and although it was slowly and barely noticeable, it was still there.

"Umm… Heero?" Relena started, interrupting his thoughts, he whipped around to see Relena, who was staring at something on the opposite side. Heero's eyes darted to the object that she was staring at. The body of the heavily built man that he had knocked out earlier was stirring on the ground. In seconds, he was on his feet and frantically glancing around him. Heero moved to get up, but the man saw his subtle action and dashed quickly out of sight. Heero was about to chase after him before Relena grabbed his arm with a shaky hand.

"No… don't leave… please?" She pleaded with him, her eyes glistening softly in the moonlight. Heero's heart softened and he sighed heavily after glaring longingly in the direction in which the man had disappeared.

"Fine," He answered her and Relena loosened her grip on his arm, let her arm fall limply to her side. Her face contorted in pain and she nursed her arm, Heero was quickly by her side and examining her arm. "Does this hurt?" He squeezed her arm and she yelped in reply. "Thought so, he's broken your arm, is there anywhere else you think he may have injured?"

"No that's all." She replied, casting her eyes onto Trowa's flaccid body. "What about Trowa, will he… will he make it?" She asked, her voice shaking with fear and anxiety and her hands were trembling as she stared at him.

"I hope so. Although his heart rate is very slow, so the sooner we get him out of here, the higher the chance of him surviving." Relena nodded mutely, staring rather blankly at him, still shaking rather violently. Heero knew that now, the shock would be setting in. It was something that happened quite often to witnesses of violent events. And this was certainly a violent event, seeing as Trowa was lying, half-dead, amongst the decaying leave and plants. If they waited much longer, Trowa would be joining them. The decaying leaf litter that is.

Heero stooped down and picking Trowa's body up into his arms, he guided Relena back through the forest and out into the open gardens.

The moon shining down from the clear night's sky shed an eerie glow upon their surroundings. And they were no longer walking in darkness.

Relena let out a small-relieved sigh, but as she turned to the two people, walking beside her she inhaled a deep breath again, and unknowingly held it.

"How are you holding up?" Heero asked her, she glanced at him quickly, if he was struggling with the weight of the former heavyarms pilot, he sure wasn't showing any signs of it.

"I'm fine, I just feel… useless." She told him, her voice husky, most likely from lack of use for the last few minutes.

"Don't. As soon as we get him back to Quatre's he'll be fine." Although Relena wanted to believe what he had said, when she stared at Trowa and the bloody messes that enveloped his head, she found it hard.

As they reached the front door to Quatre's mansion, Relena opened it, allowing Heero and Trowa to pass through with ease.

"Duo!" Heero yelled after his braided American friend. His voice echoed and bounced off the corridors around him.

A few moments later, Duo came bounding out of the lobby, a bright smile plastered on his mischievous face.

"Hey guys, what ya-" His smile quickly disappeared as his eyes fell upon Heero and the inert Trowa. "What the hell happened here?"

"I'm not quite sure yet, all I know is that some guy tried to take these two out, he succeeded with Trowa, but I got to Relena before he could do any critical damage." Heero told him, somewhat solemnly as he stared down at his friend.

Duo scanned Relena quickly, looking for any form of visible damage, and upon not finding any; he once again settled his eyes upon their silent friend.

"Holy crap," He said quietly.

"Duo…" Heero growled, "Stop staring at him and do something, go contact Sally."

Duo needed no further persuasion, for he was off a few seconds later, darting down one of the long corridors, Heero could hear his footsteps echoing in the distance.

"Relena…" he said, turning to face the honey-blond haired girl. Now that they were in the light, he could see that she was still shaking, her face was extremely pale and her eyes were never faltering from Trowa.

'It couldn't be good for her to see him like this,'

"Go get Quatre for me, would you?" Relena nodded in agreement, and ran towards the lobby.

She emerged a few seconds later, pursued by a concerned looking Quatre. Quatre took one glance at his best friend and froze.

"When you said there was something wrong with him Relena…" He stopped mid-sentence at a loss for words, in fact, Heero was sure he was going to break down in a few seconds. "Oh, Trowa…" He whispered, stepping closer to his long time friend, "I think it would be best if we left him in one of the rooms on this floor, that way it would be easier for the doctors and paramedics to get to him," He told Heero, "follow me and I'll show you to a spare room."

Heero started after Quatre, following him down the long, and now depressingly, gloomy corridors. It seemed as if the whole mansion had fallen under a miserable spell, casting sadness through each room of the house.

---------------------------------------------------

Relena started to follow them, behind Heero, but a hand caught her shoulder and she spun around quickly to find her intruder.

Hilde frowned at her confusedly.

"Oh, Hilde, it's just you, you startled me," Relena told her, holding her hand over her chest as if to slow her heart rate.

"So I can see, come with me and we'll get you some hot chocolate, you seem very tense," Hilde replied, grabbing her left arm, to guide her into the lobby, but at the contact on her arm, Relena gasped and pulled away.

"Oh… You're hurt." Hilde said, and lifted up her arm to inspect the damage, "It's a minor fracture, with the right cast, and it should mend in no time, but first let's get you that hot chocolate.

"Hmm… Sounds good," Relena answered, trailing after her friend.

As she walked into the lobby, she threw herself into one of the large chairs and as she sunk into the comfortable cushions, she let out a grave sigh.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Hilde called from the side kitchen.

'Good question,' Relena thought, 'If I talk about it, it'll be off my chest I guess, but it means reliving it all… the fear, the blood, Trowa…' she didn't feel that she had quite come to terms with the recent events, never mind telling someone else.

"Not yet. Hilde," she replied.

Hilde came out, a few minutes later, two large mugs gripped in her small hands.

"That's okay then, but I'm here when you are ready to talk," Hilde placed a mug into Relena's right hand and Relena watched, fascinated, as the steam curled into spirals, floating upwards and fading into the open air.

She carefully lifted her left hand to hold the other side of the mug but gasped as an excruciating pain shot through her arm, causing her to let go of the mug, and the contents to spill out over her and the armchair.

Jumping up quickly, she tried to brush the residue liquid off her – already stained from the soil in the forest – outfit. She sighed heavily, for what seemed to be the hundredth time that day.

"Great," she said sardonically.

"Oh it's okay," Hilde told her, already looking for something to clean up the mess.

"Hilde, get back in here and sit down!" Relena cried, frustrated, "You're pregnant; I can't have you running around after me."

"Relena, it's no problem. As I told Duo, I may be pregnant but that doesn't make me physically impaired, besides, sitting helpless in a chair all day - 'relaxing', as the doctor calls it – bores me." Hilde explained, "I'm an active girl and I can't stand having nothing to do. That's one of the reasons I forced Duo to bring me here, it's easier to get away with being pregnant and over-active in a house full of people, and at Quatre's, something eventful _always_ happens, and that drifts the attention away from me."

"What? Like Trowa getting attacked and having his head split open?" Relena asked, rather bitterly.

Hilde gasped, staring at her, with a stunned expression on her pretty face.

'Oh yeah, I forgot that I hadn't told her,' Relena thought silently, she went to turn away and mop up the spillage but Hilde grabbed her right arm.

"Trowa got attacked?" She asked, her voice shaky and surprised.

"Yeah…" Relena answered slowly, "I don't want to talk about it,"

"No Relena, you can't just tell me what you did, and then just drop it like that," Hilde pushed Relena gently into another chair, "Now spill,"

Relena sighed, and reluctantly told her friend what had happened.

"… and then 'Action man' shows up-"

"Hold on," Hilde interrupted, "Who's '_Action man'_?"

"Hah," Relena laughed, somewhat resentfully, "_Heero_."

"Oh I see… continue."

"Yeah, so then 'Action man' shows up, conks the guy over the head, rendering him unconscious, and once again… saves the day. However, there's no surprise there, it's what Heero's here for, right? You know, to be our hero, our knight in shining armour, our superman-"

"Alright, alright I get it… you have a crush on Heero," Hilde teased and giggling slightly, she ducked the cushion that was thrown at her, and watched it fall to the ground a few feet away from where she was sitting.

"I… Do… Not…" Relena told her, taking time to pronounce each syllable slowly and carefully, "have a crush on that heartless soldier… why would you say such a thing?"

Hilde laughed, "Because Relena, you're always so horrible about him. Do you remember in high school? When you had a crush on someone? And you were always really mean to them in order to cover up your true feelings-"

"Oh! No, no, no!" Relena exclaimed, disrupting Hilde.

"Oh! Yes, yes, yes…" Hilde mocked, and then she stopped, realising the innuendo behind her last sentence.

Relena had noticed it too and had cracked up laughing.

"Is _that_ what you say to Duo in bed?" Relena asked, in between trying to stifle her laughs.

"No." Hilde answered stubbornly. "How did my mocking you, twist around to be you mocking me?"

"I don't know," Relena answered, taking in a deep breath to calm her. Upon hearing the click of the lobby door, both girls spun around on their chairs to establish who their visitor was.

Catherine Bloom stood at the door, her eyes blood shot – obviously from a lot of recent crying – and her usually bright and cheerful face now pale with fear and worry.

"Cathy!" Relena cried, standing up from her spot on the sofa, "What's wrong?"

"It's Trowa…" Cathy answered, sniffling. Relena noticed that she was biting her bottom lip, so hard that Relena was sure that there would soon be blood spurting out of it, and her small hands were clutched together and shaking, badly. "He's stable…"

"But, isn't that a good thing Cathy?" Hilde asked gently.

Cathy replied by shaking her head furiously,

"He's in a coma, and… and… Sally is doubtful that… that he'll ever come out of it…" With that said, she broke down, crying into Hilde's shoulder, with Hilde patting her back soothingly.

'Oh god no… no please don't take him away from me… not Trowa…'

* * *

_'Hating is a feeling which leads to the extinction of values,' -- Jose Ortega y Gasset_

(sniffles) Trowa...! Please be okay!

You wanna know what happens to our pilot 03? Do ya, do ya? ... Well, you'll just have to wait till the next chapter cause i'm not spilling me plot... no sur-ee! Heh... i'm evil!

But even though i am, evil that is, it doesn't mean that i don't love you guys, i've got soooooo many hits from you. Thanks for reading guys! And please review, Danke!

Love ya'll

Allura


	10. Jaded

**Between Love and Hate**

**Disclaimer:** If i owned Gundam Wing, do you really think that i would be sitting here, typing up my stories for fanfiction... No i don't think so.

A/N: Yep, i totally rock, don't you guys just LOVE me. I typed this up in one day, it may be kinda rushed, but i decided to leave it with you before i go on my two week vacation to Florida! (yay, can't wait, I'm going in like 5 Min's heh) But yeah, i got this up, and i am sooooo proud of myself. So like, please review, cause i did this for you guys!

**Chapter nine: Jaded**

Relena, after tapping on the large oak door, walked through it, entering the dull, undecorated and bare room, which Trowa was currently occupying.

The door quietly clicked back into place as she neared his sleeping form. She glanced around her briefly; the room was painted a dull creamy white and the bouquet of flowers sitting in a vase in the corner of the room was wilting, making the room seem lifeless. It reflected the atmosphere around the room and the house; dull, lifeless and depressing.

Her eyes came to rest upon the form of Trowa, who was currently dead to the world and had been for two days.

Relena hadn't picked up the courage, until now, to come and visit her comatose friend. The thought that she may not get to speak to him, or see him again was the thought that haunted her into being there today.

Cathy, who hadn't left his bedside since he had arrived back at the mansion, had kindly evacuated the room in order to give her and Trowa some privacy, and Relena was grateful for it. She had many things that she knew she needed to get off her chest, a lot of feelings and emotions to sort out, all of which linked to Trowa.

As she watched him, the gentle, yet unsteady, rise of his chest, and heard the slow and continuous bleep of the heart monitor – securing her hopes that he was still alive – she became frightened, weary and exhausted, all at once. She hadn't gotten any sleep for the past few nights, and she found that all of a sudden it had all collapsed on her, but before she could get some rest, she knew that she had to have a talk with her sleeping friend.

Setting herself down in the chair opposite the bed, she sighed heavily, trying to think of a way that she could release all of her thoughts, without them pouring out in an unorganised manner.

"Hello Trowa," she told him, "I don't know if you can hear me or not, but I need to talk to you anyway, I need to get this off my chest, and somehow, it seems easier now that you're not awake… I need to tell you that I am sorry; I feel that, somehow, this is all of my fault and I feel so pathetic, now that I can't do anything about it. I mean, here I am, safe as can be, and you're lying here in front of me, and I don't even know if you'll ever wake up again. I'm so terrified, this whole ordeal is just so scary, the thought of never being able to talk to you again…" A small, feeble tear coursed its way down her cheek, dripping onto her light pink linen skirt and Relena took hold of Trowa's hand in both of her own, holding it firmly.

"In fact, I don't even know if I could cope with living without you. You're my best friend, when things go wrong, you're always the one by my side to make it better. And although I am only realising this now, you are the one person who is the closest to me out of all of my friends. You know things about me that even I haven't figured out yet, you're the one thing, in my fragile world that keeps me going… and Trowa, without you, my world will shatter and break." She breathed in deeply, inhaling the stuffy air of the dim room.

"For some strange reason, I have noticed, that you let me in, you open up to me like you do for on one else. Not even Cathy, your sister, your blood relative. You talk freely to me, outside of that shell that you often hide behind, and you smile at me. That real, true smile of yours that I like to believe, you save only for me. I don't know why that I like to believe this, I guess it's comforting, as you're my one solid thing in this world that keeps on spinning, and now that you might be leaving, well, it's spinning out of control, and I need you Trowa… I need you…" She whispered quietly before staring silently at her friend, almost willing his lashes to flutter and his eyelids to open and reveal to, her, dazzling, emerald green eyes. However, it never happened. His eyelids stayed glued shut and his eyelashes at rest.

"Oh Trowa… I'm so sorry. We _will_ find who did this to you… I swear we will. In fact, the guys are already working on it." She sighed heavily again, still clutching Trowa's hand in hers and squeezed it slightly, "We're all so worried about you, especially Quatre. He's sick to the bone with anxiety, moping around the house all day, he's not even arguing with Dorothy, he's just agreeing to everything she says. And I believe that Duo has stopped eating his meals, he hasn't touched anything, and as you well know, that is a _very_ rare thing for Duo." She chuckled, humorously, while staring out of the window, which ironically, showed a view of the Northern forest.

"Trowa, please listen to me if you can. You have to wake up, you have to fight this, you're a strong person and I know, personally that you can make it through this. I mean, you're only twenty, you have such a good life ahead of you to live… a long life, and you're not going to drop all of it now. You have to get married, have children, grow old… fall in love, and you have to promise me that you'll make it, Trowa, you have to promise me that you'll be there for me." She tore her eyes away from him to look down at his large muscular hand in her diminutive ones.

"I don't understand what's happening to me, but when I'm around you my body, brain, and emotions, not to mention my heart, go haywire. It's not a bad thing; really, it's just strange, in a nice kind of way. And maybe, I was thinking… we could do this together…" She sighed, almost angrily, "I don't know why I'm talking to you when I know you can't even here me, it's just, I need to sort out these emotions of mine, but I'm being selfish right now, so I will leave them until you wake up… which you will do… right?"

"God… I don't know how I'm meant to cope without you. I mean, you were with me through all of the tough times I've been through, and just you being there, your support, it gives me strength… the strength to pull through. Like the time that Heero left, you were there, when I was struggling with my job; you were there, when Matthew was… well you were there too, although you didn't know, you still helped me."

"And what about now… now that you know… you promised me, Trowa… you promised me that you would always be there to protect me from him. How are you meant to do that now?" Her vision was becoming blurry as she looked up at her friend again - who was still not stirring – pleading with him for an answer, droplets of salty tears now flowed freely from her eyes, dampening her face and her outfit.

"How are you meant to protect me when you won't even wake up?" She raised her voice slightly, taking her anger out on the partly dead man in front of her, "That's right you can't… and it's still all my fault." She began sobbing, almost hysterically, but after a few minutes she recomposed herself and sniffling slightly, wiped the tear stains from her face.

"Please… please… please wake up. Wake up… and be okay… Wake up, and live your life, with me, because Trowa, I think… I think I…" she brought her voice down to a low whisper, "I think I love you…" After waiting a few minutes, she lent over and placed a chaste kiss on the lips of the ex-heavyarms pilot.

Nevertheless, Trowa stayed still, still lost in a dark taunting slumber and dead to the world around him.

"That won't work," Relena jumped at the sudden new voice behind her, and spun around sharply, to see who it was. Quatre stood there, staring at her with clouded, dull aquamarine eyes. Relena briefly thought how she missed the gentle yet vibrant twinkle that was absent from his beautiful eyes. "Kissing him that is. He's no 'Sleeping Beauty', and I'm pretty sure… that you're no 'Prince Charming,'" His voice droned, non-humorously, and even though Relena knew that he was joking, his face was dead serious and no heartening smiles graced his pale lips.

"Quatre, you startled me. Isn't that Heero's tactic, you know, approaching people on feet as silent as death?" Relena asked the platinum haired man.

"We were all taught it, Heero just forgets when to use it and when to not," Quatre answered, in a matter of fact tone.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough," He answered quickly, his eyes drooped slightly as he stared at his best friend, of five years, lying unconscious on a padded table, hooked up to heart monitors, IV's and other medical machinery.

"Oh," Relena said, turning her attention back to Trowa.

"I was going to announce that I was here, but you seemed busy and thoughtful, and I didn't want to interrupt." Quatre told her, his voice was now somewhat tranquil and gentle, but Relena knew, that it was just a show, to try to calm her down.

'It's so like Quatre, to be so caring of others when he's in such a traumatised state,' she thought silently.

"Come on Relena," Quatre said, disrupting her from her thoughts, and resting a comforting hand on her shoulder he squeezed it gently, "I think you've spent enough time in here. It's not good for you to stay with him too long, it's stressing, and I had to find this out the hard way."

Relena slowly rose from her seat; never lifting her eyes of Trowa until Quatre gently turned her around and guided her out of the room.

--------------------------------------------

At dinnertime, which was usually the most cheerful of times in the house – most likely due to Duo's intense love of food – the air lingering around the dining room was tense and the conversation was structured. Everyone sat around the large table, staring reluctantly at the food, placed in large piles, in front of them.

"How is everyone?" Quatre said, breaking the silence, there was a murmur of 'good's and 'fine's that could be heard faintly across the table.

"Please everyone," Quatre continued, "Don't be like this, you know Trowa would never want it this way. He wants us, until he wakes up, to go on with our vacation and try to enjoy ourselves, no matter how hard it shall be. However, we owe it to Trowa; we should put some effort into this, because Trowa would _want_ us to be happy."

"He _wants_ us to be happy, Quatre," Duo corrected, "'Trowa would want us to be happy' is speaking in the past tense. He's still here; you can't speak of him like that."

Quatre looked embarrassed, a faint pink blush rose to his cheeks and he muttered, almost inaudibly, an apology.

The awkward silence settled amongst them again before Quatre, once again, spoke up.

"Well, tomorrow, be prepared for a trip to the beach… now please, eat up, my chef's worked hard to make this meal, don't let it go to waste like last night's.

Most of the friends, started eating their food except for Nikki, who stared at her food as if it were poisoned. This, for some reason, angered Relena.

"You can eat it you know," She said, rather bitterly, "I swear it won't bite back."

Nikki, startled by her sudden statement and coldness, stared up at her, shocked and then scowled. This drew Heero's attention to her and he glared at his girlfriend, an annoyed look on his face.

"Nikki…" he growled.

"Yes?" Nikki looked up at him, smiling innocently.

"Eat it," He told her, and then he sent her a warning look that gave Relena the idea that they had had a conversation about this before.

Nikki turned away from his gaze to stare back at her food, but she still didn't touch it.

"NOW!" Heero growled, almost shouting.

Nikki, with reluctance, picked up her fork and shoving her food around on the plate for a minute, started to eat it with small bites.

Heero watched her, and after making sure that she was actually eating, turned back to eating his own food, a semi-satisfied look placed on his face.

---------------------------------------------

After eating dinner, Relena, after grabbing her stuff, stumbled into the bathroom for a well-needed shower.

Once inside she looked around, noting how nicely decorated it was. The shower had this beautiful glass door with an intricate design etched onto it; there was a large, comfortable looking bath sitting in the corner and even the toilet and sink looked expensively decorated.

After stripping down, she turned the knob on the shower and stepped into the glass container, enjoying the feel of the warm steam against her cool skin and the pressurised hot water pounding against her exhausted and weary body. The whole feel of it was just calming her jaded soul.

After her quick shower, she stepped out onto the towel that she had earlier placed on the tiles and dried herself. She changed quickly into her casual clothes – a pair of jeans and a tee shirt – and left the bathroom, full intending to go in search of Hilde and talk to her, she felt somewhat tied down with all of her thoughts and feelings and needed someone, desperately, to spill them to.

But a hard muscular chest stopped her in her tracks and she glanced to find herself staring into mesmerizing, hypnotising, Prussian blue eyes.

"Heero…" She mumbled, backing away from him slightly, so that she wasn't pressed tightly against his torso. "Sorry, I wasn't looking were I was going-"

He cut off her apology quickly, by shaking his head.

"Okay, then, well I'm going to go…" She started to move away from him, but his strong hand grabbed her arm, preventing her from leaving.

"Wait," Relena turned around again, to stare at him, whilst trying to look somewhat annoyed at being held back, "we need to talk,"

"We are talking Heero," Relena answered him, sharply.

Heero's eyes grew stonier and colder.

"You know what I mean Relena, somewhere private."

Relena glanced around her, scanning the halls for anyone else who could be listening in to their conversation.

"Well, I don't see anyone else around, so basically_ this_ is private," she shrugged, and threw Heero a cold look that matched his own.

"Relena, don't be awkward. I just wanted to see how you were-"

"I'm fine," she snapped, interrupting him, "and I'm grateful for your saving mine and Trowa's life… really, I am. Is that what you want from me Heero? A thank you, because now you have it, and while we're at it, you can have an apology too." She glared at Heero, who was obviously trying his best not to look taken back by her hostility, "You know, the one that I owe you from, what, three years ago. Yeah? Well Sorry, okay? Happy now, are you Heero? You got what you wanted, now leave me alone and go back to your little skinny, pretty girlfriend of yours, I'm sure she's missing your _company_."

"She's resting at the minute, and I don't want to talk to her, I need to talk to you, I'm pretty sure that there are a few things that we need to sort out between you and me," He answered, almost furiously.

A large flash of static electricity bolted down from the sky outside, followed by a thunderous explosion which caused Relena to jump, and move a few paces closer to Heero, unwillingly.

"Heero, we don't have anything to talk about, okay?"

"Relena,-" The rest of his sentence was drowned by another explosion of thunder, and soon rain was pelting down upon the glass windows, which shook slightly, threatening to shatter under the velocity of the raindrops.

Relena sighed, "Look there's no point in us talking now, I can't hear you out here, there's too many windows along this hall."

"I know, that's exactly why we should go somewhere private," Heero replied, now leaning against the corridor wall, his arms folded across his chest.

'The way Trowa does,' Relena thought.

"Fine then, where do you want to go to?" She asked, adamantly.

Heero, using his thumb, beckoned towards Relena's room.

"My bedroom?" Relena asked.

"Yes, I promise I won't take advantage of you in there, what kind of person do you think I am?" He asked, raising his eyebrows slightly.

As soon as Relena had led Heero into the room, a loud bang could be heard, then a buzzing noise, followed by the flickering of the lights.

Then the power decided to go out. Drowning Relena and Heero, in her room of darkness.

* * *

'Hate m_ust make a man productive. Otherwise, one might as well love.' -- Karl Kraus_

Tadaa... don't you just love power cuts and thunder storms... Ummm yeah (confused look). So what did you guys think? Please tell me. Is this story getting worse or better as it goes along? Because I've only been in fanfiction for a short period of time, and i know my writing skills aren't exactly the best, but i love writing, with a passion, i really do. But if you think I'm getting worse or better or if the plots are getting weird, i would like to know. Also ways to make it better. I'd like to know what you guys think of this in the next reviews, but please don't be too harsh lol.

Anyways, I'll see ya in two weeks, okay? PLEASE REVIEW!

Love y'all

Allura


	11. Unwanted distractions

**Between Love and Hate**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Gundam wing and am therefore not making any profit from this fanfiction. I am writing it mainly because I love both Gundam wing and writing!

A/N – I'm BA-ACK! Yay. Florida was fun, but I am so glad to be back and able to write on my beautifulicious little computer here lol. I am so sorry about the delay!

**Chapter ten – Unwanted distractions**

There was a brilliant blue flash and then the room plunged into impenetrable darkness. Although, even in the darkness, Heero's sharp eyes picked up certain things around the room. For example, the glassy cerulean blue eyes that gazed up at him in distinguished fear.

"Are you okay?" He asked Relena instinctively, running a hand through his chaotic dark locks.

"Yeah," she replied unsteadily, "I guess the storm must have cut out the power."

Another bolt of intense white light followed by a roar of thunder echoed throughout the mansion, causing Relena to shudder involuntarily.

"We should probably go and find the others," she added quickly, searching for Heero's Prussian blue eyes in the midst of the darkness.

"Oh no," Heero replied quickly, a small smirk twitching the corners of his lips, "We'll be just fine here. Don't forget, we have to have this little talk."

'She doesn't really think that she can escape me that easily, does she?' He mused silently to himself.

"Not now Heero, we're not having this 'little talk' right now. We really do have to go and find the others. They'll be searching for us." Relena told him, nervously heading for the door.

"Why," Heero asked, stepping in front of the door and blocking her exit, "would they be doing that?"

'This seems a little déjà vu.' Relena thought, as she struggled to get past her ex-bodyguard, "Because they're our friends, that's why."

"Relena, we are _not_ kids, they know that we are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves."

"But they don't know that we are together, so they _will_ try to find us, after all, its pitch black and Quatre will want everyone to group together." She had a point, and unfortunately, for Heero, he had to give in to her.

"Fine, but I want to talk to you later," He told her, sighing heavily and stepping out of her way.

"Fine," Relena answered, avoiding his scrutinizing and callous glares as she passed him on her way out of her room.

--------------------------------------------

"Uh… What was that?" Duo asked, scanning around in search of his friends who had been right in front of him two seconds ago, well, until the whole room had suddenly dived into obscurity.

"I think that the power just cut out, idiot," Wufei answered mockingly. He had arrived earlier that day, just arriving back on Earth after a specially assigned task from Une. His insult, however, fell upon deaf ears, as no one had actually noticed the sarcasm that under toned his voice.

"But that's impossible," Quatre exclaimed, from one corner of the dark room, his voice laced with confusion, "This building's electricity vault was made to withstand storms and power cuts et cetera. It has its own energy store situated below, in the cellar, there's no way that we could have run out, or that the storm could have caused this sudden shortage of electricity."

A clicking noise could be heard from the far end of the room as Quatre flicked the light switches.

"I don't understand." He said, mainly to himself, Dorothy tightened her grasp on his arm, and he pulled her into his arms.

"Are you sure it's not possible that the storm cut it?" Wufei asked, his sarcasm now replaced with curiosity.

"Positive," Quatre answered him, without hesitation, showing that he was confident with his answer.

"Then what could have caused this?" Dorothy asked from beside him.

"Honestly? I'm not sure. I guess someone should go and check out the supply vault in the cellar."

"Shouldn't we wait until Heero, Nikki and Lena are with us before we split up?" Hilde asked.

"Yes, but we should go in search of them now, they don't – well Relena doesn't know her way around the mansion too well," Quatre answered her, looking in the direction he had guessed her voice had come from. The darkness that had engulfed them a few minutes ago had rendered him almost blind and it was somewhat irritating.

"I don't like this," Hilde whispered, stumbling on her own too feet as she crossed the room in the dark, clutching tightly to her husbands muscular arm for support. "I have a bad feeling… a feeling that something really bad is going to happen-"

Duo grabbed her small form, and pulled her to the right, closer to him, preventing her from walking into the doorframe. As his well-trained eyes were able to see more than hers could, he took it upon himself to guide his wife to safety.

"This feels like a scene from a horror movie," Hilde continued after recomposing herself.

"Babe…" Duo said reassuringly, "Nothing's going to happen, you're overreacting, and besides I'm here with you, what could possibly happen?"

"Don't say that!" Hilde warned him sharply, "The person who says that in the movies is _always_ the next to get killed!" She grabbed onto his arm tighter, as though if she let go, he would be lost from her forever.

"Killed, Hilde?" Duo asked, stifling a laugh.

"Yes. Killed, Duo!" Hilde answered him irately. She stumbled into something, and after groping the air around her, she identified the object as being a table. She felt around again, and found a phone on the table, gasping, she picked it up quickly and pressed the cold receiver close to her ear. "Great… now the phone's dead too!"

"That would be," Zechs told her, becoming aggravated by her behaviour, "because the power is _off_."

"Right guys," Quatre said, interrupting the tension that had been growing between his friends, "We need to find the others, does anybody know where they are or at least where they last were?"

"Lena said something about going for a shower," Hilde told him, "but I don't know about the other two."

"I'd reckon they're in their room," Duo said, amusedly grinning to himself.

"Okay, well then we'll make our way up to the second floor," Quatre told them, already beginning to climb up the - now dark - mahogany staircase, careful not to trip himself on the way up.

"Isn't this kind of pointless?" Wufei asked, tonelessly.

"What?" Quatre asked, stopping at the bottom of the first floor stairs.

"Searching for them in a house this large, in the dark, we'll most likely be running around in circles-" Wufei started, but he was soon interrupted by the startling screech belonging to a frightened Hilde.

"Ohmigod, ohmigod, Oh my God." Hilde screamed as a faint girlish laughter filled the air around them.

"RELENA! That was just plain _cruel_. You scared the living daylights out of me." Hilde scoffed, her voice nearly drowned out by the laughter of both Relena and Duo.

"What happened?" Quatre asked carefully.

"Relena…" Hilde started-

"…Scared the crap out of Hilde." A monotonous voice filled in the spaces for her.

"Oh," Quatre answered, not amused, "You," he said, referring to Heero, "and rRelena are here we can go back downstairs and check out the power supply in the cellar. Heero will you come with me?"

"Sure," Heero replied as the group started back down the stairs cautiously.

"Umm, what about Nikki?" Duo asked, enquiringly.

"Oh, dammit," Heero cursed before dashing back up the stairs, his tanned hands skimming along the banister as he ran towards his room.

Everybody stood, staring up the stairs at where the moon was shining, casting the staircase into eerie greys, and watched Heero disappear from sight. A muffled giggle turned their attention away from him and back towards Relena.

All eyes turned towards the chuckling, honey-blond girl with the grin plastered across her small mouth.

"What are you laughing about?" Zechs asked his sister, hoping that she hadn't hit her head and become delirious, because if she had… oh boy… was that pain-in-the-ass soldier going to get it from him.

"I can't believe he just forgot about his girlfriend," Relena muttered. In the dim light, she noticed the frown that passed across a few of her friend's faces.

"We'll wait for them downstairs," Quatre told them, realising that they were still standing stranded between the first and ground floors.

--------------------------------------------

Heero knocked loudly on his door before walking, swiftly, into the shadowy room. Through the darkness, the moon outside - although slightly covered by the dark rain clouds – cast an ethereal glow upon the form of a sleeping girl.

Heero walked steadily over to the small form, and sitting down on the edge of the bed, he pushed stray strands of dark brown hair away from Nikki's serene face.

"Nicola," he called out to her, "come on, you have to wake up and come downstairs."

The Spanish girl stirred from her peaceful bliss, and without opening her eyes, she lifted a hand from the sheets to swat Heero away.

"Shh, not yet," she hushed him, "just a few more minutes."

A somewhat slow grin traced the ex-soldier's lips as he stared down at the drowsy girl, "Nicola, seriously, come on now…" He told her, whilst tracing his thumb down the side of her face.

Nikki, irritated by his waking her, rolled over on the mattress and turned her body away from him so that she was facing in the opposite direction and attempted to drift back to sleep again.

However, Heero wasn't about to let her. He sighed deeply and pulled the sheets off his sleeping girlfriend.

Nikki, feeling the wrath of the cold air around her, sat up slowly, wrapping her thin arms around her frame to insulate herself from the bitter chill.

Heero, having walked over to her temporary wardrobe, pulled out a pair of jeans and a shirt and threw them over to her.

The clothes fell lightly onto the bed and Nikki stared at them, momentarily dumbfounded, before pulling the clothes on quickly and staring up into Heero's glistening blue eyes sleepily.

"Come on, we have to go," he told her, his face emotionless. Nikki stood, and walked past him slowly.

"Where were you?" She asked, gliding towards the door.

Heero watched, entranced, as her long legs led her across the room, "What?"

Nikki paused and turned around to look at him again, a disconcerted look upon her pretty face. "When I was up here, sleeping, you were gone for quite a while. Where were you?"

Heero felt a strange pang of guilt surge through him, although he couldn't understand why. He hid his guilt behind his mask and stared at her, thinking of what to say. He knew that he couldn't tell her that he had been looking for Relena, or even that he had _been_ with Relena. It might have raised a few suspicions on her behalf.

"Just wandering around," he answered. Nikki gazed at him curiously, her chocolate eyes roaming over his face as if trying to search him for the truth, but as Heero tended to 'wander around' frequently, she nodded her head and left the room, Heero following soon behind her.

--------------------------------------------

As soon as Heero and Nikki had reached the bottom of the stairs, Heero was immediately persuaded to go with Quatre to check out the cellar.

Quatre pulled open the stiff wooden and unvarnished door to the cellar with a strong tug. As the door swung open, a large cloud of musty dust filled the air around them and both ex-gundam pilots choked whilst pushing the dust out of the way with their hands.

Once the dust had disappeared and was no longer obscuring their – already limited – sight, they continued down the steps to the cellar, Quatre taking the lead with his flashlight.

As Heero stepped into the dark mouldy room, he grimaced at the air he was now inhaling into his lungs. It was as stale and dry as a thousand year old vault. He cleared his throat and gasped for new air, having held his breath for too long now.

"Right, where is this thing? I want to get out of here as soon as possible," He told the platinum haired man beside him.

"Just over here," Quatre shone the flashlight in his hand over to the corner of the room. The light beamed brightly upon what looked to be a large box, situated on the side of the wall, "the controls are in the box,"

Heero walked over to it, Quatre by his side, and pulled open the two symmetrical, white doors that were blocking the control panel from their view. The doors swung open noisily on their hinges to expose a smoking box and a few stray wires.

"Quatre, hold the flashlight closer to the box so that I can get a better view, would you?" Heero asked whilst pushing his messy dark hair away from his eyes, in order to gain a better view.

Quatre moved the flashlight a few inches closer to the control panel. For a few seconds, Heero examined the stray wires on the control panel and then he held them up in the air for Quatre to examine.

"Here's your problem," Heero told him, standing up from his crouched position on the ground, and shaking the severed wires, "And that's definitely not accidental."

"So I can see. Nevertheless, I don't understand. How could this have happened?" Quatre asked, staring intently at the perfectly cut cables that had been cut off from their supplies.

"I think we've had some visitors," Heero said, observing Quatre, who was now studying the wires with a questioning look adorning his face.

--------------------------------------------

"So?" Duo asked as Heero and Quatre walked back into the room. The room they were now in was another sitting room, but it also happened to be the brightest room in the house, on account of the fact that most of the outer walls were made of glass, "What's up?"

"It seems as though someone has cut the wires, so well, in fact, that it will be impossible for any of us to fix it within the next few days," Quatre answered the braided man.

"What?" Noin asked, surprise evident in the tone of her voice, "Somebody cut it?"

"That is what he said, isn't it?" Wufei asked, her, glaring at her in the dark. 'Women and their stupid questions.'

"I reckon that it was one of the same people who attacked Trowa," Heero told them. A silence settled between the friends as they each pondered their own thoughts on the issue at hand.

"I feel," Quatre started, "that for now, we should stay at a hotel. There's one about ten miles east of here, I'm sure I could call in and arrange a few rooms for us all. Well at least until we can sort out what we are going to do, I mean, if someone is plotting attacks against us, it would be foolish of us all to stay here and await their next move. We would be sitting ducks!"

"I suppose that would be a good idea," Relena commented, rather reluctantly, "Going to the hotel that is." She watched carefully as Heero left Quatre's side to stand beside his girlfriend, slip his hand into hers and plant a kiss on her tanned forehead. Relena turned away, feeling extremely annoyed for some strange reason. An emotion was tugging on her heartstrings, but she just couldn't pinpoint what it was, all she knew was that she wanted to go over to Nikki and hit her, right in the face. That would do justice. But for what exactly, she didn't know.

Instead, she walked over towards Hilde, who looked as though she was still recovering from the scare that she had received from her earlier.

"Okay, fair enough, I guess that we should all go and pack our things then?" Duo said enquiringly whilst Hilde wriggled away from his gasp to talk to Relena.

"Hey, what's up?" Hilde greeted Relena with a low whisper.

"Yes," Quatre answered Duo, "Everyone?" He raised his voice in order to get everyone's attention, "I would like you to meet me back down here in half an hour at the most." With that said, the group started to tear off in different directions.

"Um, well I need you to do me a big favour," Relena told her friend, who was trying to be dragged away by an agitated Duo.

"Yeah sure, so long as you buy me a HUGE chocolate bar, I'm feeling so damn ravenous, but only for chocolate. These stupid cravings are going to make me so fat!" Hilde muttered, giggling slightly.

"Yea sure, I'll buy you chocolate, but there is no way, that you are ever getting fat," Relena laughed, "Well as for my favour… I need you to keep me away from Heero."

"Huh?" Hilde asked, looking perplexed, "Why is that? Because every time that you see him, you just want to jump his bones?"

Duo, who had been listening into the conversation between the two girls, burst out laughing at this point. "I didn't know that you had the hots for Heero," He said, in between trying to stifle his laughter.

Relena's cheeks reddened dramatically and she scowled at Hilde. "I do not have the hots for Heero!"

"Sorry," Hilde said, biting her lip, "It's this damned pregnancy thing, it's making my hormones go crazy and I'm horny nearly all the time now."

"Tell me about it," Duo said, cuddling Hilde closely, "she's crazy in bed!" Hilde punched him playfully.

"Eww, guys, too much information!" Relena commented, grimacing at her friends, but laughing as well.

"Sorry Lena," Duo apologized before kissing his wife passionately.

Relena smiled at her friends, 'They're so happy together,' she couldn't help but feel slightly envious towards their happiness together, "I can't believe that my two favourite people, in the whole world, are having a baby!"

They broke off their kiss to turn their attention towards her again, Duo grinning sheepishly and Hilde smiling gently.

"Well, I'll leave you two here," Relena started, somewhat awkwardly, "I have to go and get packed anyways…"

"Hold on," Hilde broke away from Duo's embrace and made her way over to Relena, "what was the whole thing about keeping you away from Heero for?"

"Well… it's just that he wants to discuss something with me, I don't quite know what, but it's really awkward when I'm with him, so you know, just jump in whenever you see him coming towards me… please?" Relena begged her friend with a pleading look.

"Sure thing, well, I'll let you go and get packed now," Hilde told her friend before heading back to Duo again.

Relena started back up the stairs towards her room, feeling somewhat happier now that she knew that the conversation with Heero was no longer a problem.

'No more awkwardness, no more being entranced by his mesmerising eyes, or his perfectly structured face, or his immaculately pronounced abs-' Relena shook her head quickly, ridding herself of the thoughts… 'No more Heero' she concluded.

* * *

'_Hatreds are the cinders of affection.' – Sir Walter Ralegh_

Ooooohhh… Is Relena not telling us something… hmmm I wonder… Oh and all of you who are wondering about Trowa… well I'll tell you in the next chapter, which you will just have to read to find out! Hehehe!

God, I love you guys (in a totally platonic way of course lol) seriously though, your reviews are like sunshine on a rainy day. And it rains quite frequently here in the UK, so you guys are my little rays of hope. And you know, the more of you that there are out there, the brighter my life gets… haha, I'm so sad lol.

So, my little rays of happiness, please review for me!

Love y'all

Allura01


	12. Haunted

**Between Love and Hate**

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Gundam Wing, please, you can stop asking, you know I'm never gonna.

A/N – Hello little, prettiful rays of sunshine. Looky what we got here… A_ very _long chapter, my treat! But pretty-pretty please, just for me, a few long reviews. It would be so great; _you know_ to reward me for my _strenuous_ hard work at this arduous chapter!

**Chapter eleven: Haunted**

"What?" Relena exclaimed; the tone of her voice, indicating her annoyance. She glared at Quatre beneath the blanket of darkness that encircled them all, her eyes narrowed slightly.

"Relena," Quatre started carefully, shaking his head of blond hair gently and fully cautious of her current mood, "There's no other way, unless of course, you would prefer to walk, which I highly doubt that you would, because the hotel is approximately thirty miles from here."

"But- but…" Relena struggled with her words as the rain pelted down, rashly, upon her light hair, soaking it and plastering loose strands to her pale face, "_Share a car with Heero and Nikki?_ That is preposterous. You can't do this to me Quatre; I would rather choose walking, over stepping into a car with that couple, any day!"

"Relena I must do this to you, I'm awfully sorry. Nevertheless, as I said earlier, there is no other way around this. All of the other cars are full. Cathy will be there to accompany you and the idea could not possibly be _so_ bad for you to act, so uncharacteristically, like this." He shifted uncomfortably, on the pebble pathway, in front of the stunned honey-blond girl.

"Quatre," Dorothy piped, having appeared at his side and now tugging on his arm, trying to haul him in the opposite direction. "Come on, Duo's waiting on you; so that he can start the car."

Quatre stared at Relena for a few more minutes, "I'm sorry Relena, but honestly, I don't see why you and Heero have to act so childishly towards each other. What's in the past should stay in the past and be forgotten. There's no use crying over spilt milk. I just wish the both of you could hurry up and get on with it, and realise, that the both of you are holding all of us back with your grudges," and with that, he surrendered himself to his platinum haired wife who, without hesitation, dragged him to their car.

Relena turned to gaze up at the great foreboding mansion behind her, taking in all of her surroundings attentively. She noted how the forest in the distance seemed much more chilling and forbidding; in complete darkness, how the intricately designed mansion now appeared to have a somewhat sinister, threatening appeal to it and how the dark trees encompassing her all bent assertively under the aggressive force of the violent, howling wind.

Their only true light source, being the moon, had been cast over, hidden by menacingly callous, black clouds that hung low amongst the atmosphere and shed every inch of the winner grounds into a tremendous amount of fear, that spread through the inhabitants far more hastily than a deadly contaminating disease.

She could sense it. The daunting, overwhelming yet mysterious premonition that ached in her chest, that froze her blood in its veins, halted her heart in its thundering pulsation and congealed her breath with a steady twist of ice. Something was very wrong here, her intuition was screaming at her to do something quickly, but so loudly that even she could not understand its directions. Goosebumps popped up all over her chilled skin, causing Relena to shudder unwillingly, wrapping her thin arms around her body in order to feel some form of security.

She almost half expected to hear a lonesome moan from a carnivorous wolf, up upon the silent hills in the distance, but after straining her ears for a few moments, she could only here the faint plod of feet, walking slowly in her direction. Sighing, Relena turned around and let her eyes roam to her opponent's.

"I heard that I was the fortunate being, who was allowed to escort the beautiful queen, ceremoniously, to her awaiting castle." Heero strolled towards her, his dark eyes, gleaming wildly in the dark and an unrecognizable smirk graced his handsome features.

Relena glared back at him, her cold eyes never departing from his. Even though she had blushed profusely when he had used the word 'beautiful' when describing her; she still felt rather compelled to believe that there was a cynic tone to his deep voice when he had said this, and chose to ignore him, callously.

Heero frowned at her, before shrugging, rolling his eyes and sauntering, leisurely over to his car.

Relena, who had turned stubbornly in the opposite direction, preferring to stand around doing nothing, rather than stepping into a car with Heero… alone. Who knew what sorts of questions he could throw-up, and Relena for one, sure didn't want to find out. Not willingly, anyway.

When she realized seconds later, that the car had not started up nor roared to life, as it would have done - had Heero actually put the keys into the ignition and twisted them slightly – she glanced back, and to her dismay realised that he wasn't even _inside_ the car. No. Instead he was leaning, casually against his car, his hands shoved deeply into his pockets and looking like he was shooting a pose for a GQ magazine.

He looked irresistible and dangerous at the same time; the dark look across his face strangled her heart and choked her breath in her lungs as she stared at him. In the obscurity of the darkness, Relena was almost positive that she could see him leering back at her, an attractive smirk adorning his masculine face, and his dark, unruly hair casting his face even further into shadows.

"Heero," Nikki's voice called out behind her, and Relena spun around to look at her. In her reverie, she hadn't even noticed the fact that Nikki's feet were pattering lightly down the pebbled path and swiftly carrying her towards the car. Relena scowled deeply. It was just her luck to be stuck with her two least favourite lovebirds.

"Are you ready?" Heero asked Relena, ignoring his girlfriend and turning in the opposite direction. Relena chanced a sidelong view at Nikki, and noticed, to her strange delight, that she was looking rather disappointed.

"Yes, I guess so." Relena answered, walking slowly towards the car. She realised that she would have to ride with Catherine in the back seat, as Nikki was undoubtedly riding in the front with Heero. "Where's Cathy?"

"I'm here!" Cathy called whilst running towards them, a few bags dangled from her thin delicate arms, shaking and their straps threatening to snap. "I was just…" she stopped to lean over, placing her hands upon her knees and hanging her head loosely, as she caught up to them. She gulped, gasping for fresh air to flow through her lungs, "saying goodbye to Trowa." As she raised her head, Relena realised that her eyes were still considerably red from her consistent moping and that the glamorous twinkle that usually held so much vibrancy in her eye, had still not revived.

"Goodbye?" Relena asked, her eyes widening in alarm, "What's wrong with him, what happened Cathy?"

"Nothing's changed from the last time you seen him, Relena. But it's just so hard with me to part from him after having sat at his bedside with him… the _whole_ time." Her voice broke, but she forced herself to continue, "Oh, I do hope that he gets better soon. I miss him so much…"

'I know what you mean,' Relena thought, silently.

"…He's being taken to the hospital now. We all agreed that it was the best thing for him." Cathy continued.

'But… I never even got to say goodbye…'

"They've taken him in Zechs' car. There wasn't enough room for me to tag along. So I guess that's why I'm coming with you guys." Cathy said, finishing her speech.

"Okay, are you ready to go then?" Heero asked, not paying much attention to Cathy's story.

"Umm, is there any chance that I can get a bus instead?" Relena asked, glowering at Heero, who glared icily back at her.

"Relena," he started, his smirk was lost amidst the callous glare that had now adorned his face, "Just get in the damned car."

--------------------------------------------

The car ride there was somewhat uneventful. Relena and Cathy were crammed into the back of the silver BMW along with quite a few hand luggage, which Relena reckoned belonged to Nikki and her 'glamorous' sense of fashion.

Nikki and Heero talked frequently in the front of the car; discussing the places they had been, the movies they had seen, basically all of the things Relena hadn't done and the places that she hadn't been.

Staring out of the window, Relena noticed that it had stopped raining but the dark sky still loomed overhead with a threatening appearance. It was too dark for her to see anything out of the windows; everything that they passed appeared blurred and unfocused in shades of dark greys and blacks.

Relena glanced quickly over to Cathy, only to find that the young red haired girl was lost in a deep slumber, her head lolling on her shoulders at every sharp bend that Heero hit.

"No, I can't, Heero," Nikki's voice rose by a few decibels, stirring Relena from her thoughts. She shot her head up from leaning against the window and stared at the couple in front of her.

"Nicola, I'm serious, it's not good for you-" Heero growled. Relena noticed that he kept shooting intimidating glares at Nikki in between focusing his eyes on the dark winding road ahead of him. Nikki, however, appeared unthreatened by the looks and returned them with a scrutinizing glare of her own.

"I've got a Prada shoot coming up soon-" she argued vigorously.

"I don't give a damn about your shoot, Nicola. You're going to whether you like it or not-" Heero responded, the volume of his voice causing Cathy to stir in her sleep. Relena tore her eyes away from the bickering couple, and instead stared into the darkness outside of her window, still listening.

"Are you threatening me?" Nikki asked loudly, her pretty face twisted into a scowl and her Spanish dialogue heavily accented due to her intense anger.

"If that's what you want to call it. Nicola, I care about you, and what you're doing is extremely harmful, do you really think that I am going to stand by and watch you damage yourself?"

"If you really love me, Heero, yes you will…" Relena noticed, in her peripheral vision that Nikki had turned her head away from Heero and was now staring out of her windowpane.

Heero growled angrily. "That's bullshit."

"What? The fact that you love me is bullshit?" Nikki asked brazenly.

"No, you know exactly what I mean, Nicola… just don't do it." He replied in a matter that stated that the conversation was over.

"Hmph." Nikki countered with, before settling into the silence and laying back, deeply into her chair.

The silence that ensued amongst the car was unnerving for Relena. A thick tension hung heavily in the atmosphere and she could tell that the argument, which Nikki and Heero had shared, regarded a very serious matter. Both seemed unwilling to back-down on the matter, resulting in a tense friction filling the silent gaps.

A sudden flow of weariness drowned Relena's body, and even though she fought to remain conscious, she found that her eyelids suddenly felt as heavy as lead. She closed them slowly, and soon, the deafening silence of the car disappeared as she was sucked into a deep sleep.

--------------------------------------------

Relena jerked awake as the car came to a sudden halt, she pried her eyes open and gazed through the bleariness to see that they were now parked outside a large luxurious hotel. The building was not too tall, but had approximately five storeys.

The area surrounding them was dense in forestry and beautiful, multicoloured flowers, which rose in numbers from their flowerbeds. Bright spotlights shone up upon the great building from their spots between the floras, highlighting the hotel with a cheery glow amidst the dark skies.

"What time is it?" She asked croakily.

Heero spun his head around and grabbing the back of Nikki's chair, smirked at Relena lazily.

"So you finally decided to grace us with your conscious presence," he told her, then glancing down at his watch, he added, "Twelve thirty."

"Hmm…" Relena groaned, stretching herself as much as she could inside the cramped backseat. Glancing around her again, she noticed that Cathy and Nikki were no longer in the car. "One minute? Why are we the only two here?"

"You really do have a phobia of being alone with me, don't you? I swear I won't eat you. Cathy and Nikki are getting us checked in. We took your passport from your bag; we needed a form of identification." He said, turning around in his chair to face the front again, but adjusting the rear-view mirror so that he could see her reflection.

"Huh, okay," Relena answered wearily, leaning her head back against the rest and avoiding Heero's eyes.

"Nice photo, by the way." Heero told her in his monotonous voice, a smirk tugging at his lips.

"You - what?" Relena asked, any drowsiness remaining in her system vanished in an instant, "Oh my god, you didn't have to look at it."

Before Heero could reply, however, the front passenger door swung open and Nikki's thin body slid into her chair, her hand slamming the door behind her.

Cathy mocked her actions and slid into the backseat beside Relena, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

"Okay, so," Nikki started, swinging her long dark curled locks onto her shoulders, "I got us all rooms booked, but Catherine and Relene will-"

"Relena," Relena snapped with an icy tone.

"I'm sorry, what?" Nikki asked, turning half around in her seat to stare at Relena and raise her perfect eyebrows expectantly.

"My name… its _Relena_… or even Lena, but not Relene; Relena: R-E-L-E-N-A, got it?" She explained, smiling sardonically.

"Right," Nikki replied, scowling slightly, "_Relena_ and Catherine will have to have single bedrooms. But that should be okay."

"Right okay." Heero answered before pulling the car door handle and stepping out into the unpolluted atmosphere of the hotel gardens.

Relena followed his actions and stepped out into the gardens, relishing the fresh floral and airy scents that she was inhaling.

Whilst inspecting the area, she noticed the faint watery shimmer coming from behind a large group of trees. She started to walk towards it to investigate when she felt a thin hand, grip around her upper arm, tugging her to a stop.

"Here's your room key," Relena spun around to see Nikki, standing with her hand upon her hip and her other holding a thin card out for her to grasp. "Are you going to take it?" Nikki asked in a strangely pleasant voice.

Relena took the key from her and walked past her to the car, ignoring her patronising glares.

Pulling her luggage from the open boot, Relena then hauled it into the reception area of the hotel where she was greeted by her friends.

"Lena!" Hilde exclaimed, rushing towards her friend elatedly, "Isn't this place so amazing?"

"Err, yeah, look Hilde, could you let go of my arm, I think you're cutting off the blood supply to my hand." Relena replied, staring down at her friend's death-tight grip on her arm.

"Oh," Hilde gasped, letting go of Relena's arm quickly, "I'm sorry, I was just excited."

"Hey, Hilde!" Duo called, looking for once, less energized than any of the others. He sauntered towards the pair with his head clasped between his hands.

"What's wrong with you, Duo?" Hilde asked; wrapping an arm around Duo's back.

"Urgh, killer headache, is all." Duo replied, massaging his temples with his fingers.

"Is that Hilde's fault by any chance?" Relena enquired with a laugh.

"Hah, no, she might have added to the effect, but it wasn't my babe, nah. My wife here," He hugged Hilde close to his chest and Hilde let out a girlish giggle, "was half-dead an hour ago. But we stopped at a garage to get some essentials and she's been hyped up on about five cups of coffee since."

"Oh, I see," Relena said, "I could do with some coffee just about now."

"Ditto that, Lena!" Duo answered before groaning again and digging his fingers further into the sides of head in frustration. "Well, our room is ready, babe." He told Hilde, "G'night Lena, cya in the mornin'."

"Bye, Lena." Hilde said, shrugging out of Duo's grasp and hugging Relena tightly, "Sleep well."

"Okay, you too."

Relena watched her smitten friends disappear into the elevator before scanning the reception around her.

A large chandelier hung over her head, intricately decorated with small crystals and casting a dull yellow glow on the room. The area was garnished with cream leather sofas and glass coffee tables, sparsely scattered around the centre.

Relena fished for the slim, plastic card that Nikki had handed her earlier, and after finding it in her handbag, she examined it for her room number.

"Five-oh-three," A deep, masculine voice told her. Relena spun around to be face-to-face with the perfect soldier, "Looks like you'll be on the same floor as me." He told her. Relena brought her gaze up to his eyes and noticed that they were slightly blood-shot and his face was pale and serious.

"Lucky me!" She said derisively, shaking her head slightly and causing her blonde hair to fall across her shoulders, "Looks like you're eventually back to your usual self."

Heero frowned at her, his eyebrows furrowing deeply in confusion, "And you mean… what, by that?"

"You've adopted your old stolid expression again. You know… that emotionless, cold look you used to always have." Relena clarified.

"Hn." Heero said, uninterested, he ran a large muscular hand tiredly through his chaotic hair, ruffling it even more and glared daggers at her with cold Prussian blue eyes.

Nikki strolled up to him, looking not in the least tired, and cuddled up to him, "Hey, honey, can we go to bed soon? I'm really tired." She said, running her tanned hand up and down Heero's broad chest.

"Sure," Heero replied blandly, and shooting Relena one last glare, he walked away, leaving Relena standing in the middle of the reception, staring after his retreating form.

--------------------------------------------

Relena stepped into the light foggy mist, swathed across the ground and rising, slowly around her ankles. As her foot hit the concealed ground beneath her, it clicked loudly, echoing piercingly through the silence, along the dark oblivion surrounding her.

Relena glanced nervously around her, her anxious blue eyes trying to pry between the blankets of blackness. However, she couldn't see anything… only a cold, dark, blackness that seeped into her very core, chilling her to the bone.

Glancing back down to her feet, she was amazed to see that the hazy mist was still emerging from the black ground. It climbed gradually, up her ankles and along her long legs, wrapping and twisting like smoky vines, trapping her and planting her firmly to the floor.

Beginning to panic, Relena struggled to loosen herself from the seizure, but eventually realized that her battle was useless. Climbing, at a much faster pace now, the cloudy vines wrapped around her mouth like hands, suffocating her breaths and stifling her muffled screams and pleas.

Twisting her head violently back and forth, trying to gain release, she spotted - to her surprise - a faded grey light emerging from amidst the dark and creeping silently towards her.

She stopped moving suddenly, allowing the vines to constrict her whole body in a tight hold and watched, curiously, as the ethereal radiance grew stronger and closer. Until it was shining its light rays upon her and letting her distinguish, amongst the dark, a long corridor. Along it, the glow illuminated hundreds of doors, each one the same as the next, and running down the full length of the hall, which looked to Relena, like it didn't end.

A dark figure stepped out from, seemingly nowhere, and walked slowly towards her; with each step the figure took, its blurriness merged, outlining the shape into a tall, masculine build, which strode at a gentle, serene pace with a somewhat confident stature.

Relena, feeling fearful, tried to pull back and away from the slow, shadowy form approaching her, but found that she was now completely incapable of motion in any form.

The figure took one more step forward out of the shadows, and that was all that Relena needed to recognize his tall, broad physique and his hauntingly blank, emerald green eyes.

Trowa. Trowa was standing in front of her, his expressions obscured by the dark shadows that covered all of his facial features but his eyes. His bright green eyes held a sombre hue as he gazed at her, his eyes never faltering from her fragile form.

"Trowa!" She wanted to scream, but the restraints around her mouth muted her voice and strained, painfully against her chest as she breathed in.

Another step forward and Relena wanted to scream again, only this time it wasn't because she was somewhat glad to see her friend, but because of the bloody chains bound to his hands and legs, dangling heavily to the ground. Thick, black chains that he dragged behind him and that looked as though they were excruciatingly heavy to bear.

Relena thrashed about forcefully, rebelling against her misty restraints, tears flowing freely from her eyes as she cried at the sight of her best friend. She wanted to escape… escape and run away, the display of Trowa was too much for her to cope with; if he moved any closer, she knew that her heart wouldn't be able to tolerate it any more.

Trowa bowed his head down slightly, staring at her ominously from the tops of his eyes and between his thick, curtained hair. He slowly lifted a hand, letting it gradually approach Relena's petrified face in a zombie-like manner.

Relena breathed in sharply through her nose – the only place she was capable of breathing from – as she watched his pale, bloody, scratched hand near her. She shook her head violently and pleaded him with her eyes, begging him to stop.

"No Trowa, please no…" She tried to shriek, but to no avail. Tears dripped relentlessly from her eyes as she sobbed at the merciless Trowa standing in front of her.

As soon as Trowa's hand grazed her cheek, Relena shut her eyes, trying to block out the icy chill that coursed through her body at his aloof touch.

'This is a dream,' Relena assured herself, 'This isn't real,' but the coldness seeping from his hand, the callused touch of him, it all seemed too real for it to be her imagination.

"Be careful…" Trowa told her in a gentle yet warning whisper. His voice was faded and so low that Relena could barely make it out. But she did, and her azure blue eyes snapped open quickly at his words, "Promise me… _sweetheart,_"

Relena released a shaky breath, staring into his serious green orbs.

"It's dangerous…" His voice faded even more until Relena lost the rest of his sentence to the placid breeze, flowing down the corridor. She shook her head fervently as his muscular form started to disappear back into the obscuring shadows.

"Don't leave…" She cried, but once again, not a sound left her voice.

Before she was given a chance to reflect on the events that had just occurred, a new figure was emerging from the shadows, this one, this time, approaching at a much faster rate and walking with an assertive, cocky stride.

A spark of dread filled Relena's body the instant he stepped into the light. His body, his shape, his posture, it was all too terrifyingly familiar.

"Hello Princess," It called. This figure, unlike Trowa's had no chains bound to his limbs, therefore it was able to walk at an alarmingly fast speed towards her, causing her blood to run cold. "Miss me?" The callous, mocking voice called out to her before laughing cruelly.

A head of blonde hair fell into slate grey eyes. Grey eyes that stared at her hauntingly, making her squirm in her restraints.

'Matthew…'

His hands reached out to abrade her face with strangely warm hands. "Are you ready for me yet?" He asked icily, his eyes illuminated with a malicious laughter and Relena could tell that he was getting a kick out of seeing her so scared. Scared of him.

"Still fighting against me I see," He told her whilst staring at her struggling form that was kicking and thrashing, trying with all her might to get away from her nightmare. "Give up, Relena, you can't win. I own you." His eyes glittered unsympathetically as he suddenly held his hands up.

Relena watched, mesmerised, as red silky ribbons appeared from thin air. Snaking their way through the air and wrapping themselves tightly around her wrists, then moving to her waist and binding themselves tightly around there.

Relena tore her gaze from the ribbons and back to Matthew, who was standing, looking smugly down at her, his hands still up in the air and this was when Relena noticed that the ribbons, too, had bound themselves around his wrists.

"See doll?" Matthew asked rhetorically, tugging at the ribbons and causing all the wispy binds from earlier to snap. Relena gasped for air as her throat was released before gazing back down at the new, stronger binds capturing her delicate body.

With another tug at the binds, Matthew hauled Relena's body towards him, so quickly that their bodies collided, sending her chest into his.

Matthew swung an arm around her waist and pulled it closely against his before placing a chaste kiss on her lips. Relena, horrified, threw her body backwards so that her back was nearly horizontal to the floor, but Matthew merely smirked at her arrogantly, as if he had just won a very valuable prize with little effort.

"You're all mine." He told her with a gluttonous and callous glint in his slate grey eyes.

* * *

'_All's fair in love and war' -- American Proverb_

Hehe, did you like? I really hope so 'cause... god, did it take me **forever** to think it up. Honestly. But all-in-all, i'm quite proud of the finished product! If you're confused... don't worry, you're meant to be, all will be explained when the time is right, but for now, review my pretties!

Ooh yeah, and don't _forget_... LONG REVIEWS! Love em... Love you!

Love y'all

Allura


	13. Unfathomable descent

**Between Love and Hate**

Disclaimer – I do not own Gundam Wing; that should be simple enough for you.

**Chapter twelve: Unfathomable descent**

Relena woke up with a start, bolting up, and gasping unceremoniously for air. Her heart was hammering heavily in her chest and pounding blood vigorously to her head, causing her to feel light-headed and weak. Wiping the warm tears from her cheeks and eyes, Relena scanned the unfamiliar and darkened perimeters around her.

She swept her hair out of her eyes and immediately noted the cold sweat plastered to her forehead, breathing heavily; she tried to get a controlled hold of her mind.

"It was only a dream…" she reassured herself aloud, "…only a dream…" Sighing deeply, she struggled to free her small form from the twisted covers and sheets and stepped into the cool interior atmosphere of the bedroom.

"I'm never going to get back to sleep," she told herself whilst walking towards one of the hotel-room windows. She hauled open the curtains and found herself staring into a clear nights sky. The clouds from earlier had dissipated and the stars that lay behind them now twinkled with a blissful glow. The full moon had made its way to its highest point and shed a gleaming radiance across the beautiful, ethereal gardens.

Gazing wearily out into the open, Relena noted the watery shimmer, cast upon one of the back walls and was reminded of the same glimmer that she had seen earlier.

It was bound to be a pool… or a lake even…

Relena rushed to change into her two-piece swimsuit and grabbing her towel and card-key she headed down to the grounds, which her window overlooked.

As she walked, hastily, past the secretary at the hotel's front desk, she eyed her with suspicion and curiosity, her prying eyes following Relena's small frame through the reception.

Once out into the cold night's fresh air, Relena wallowed in the ambience, and danced under the moons calming rays, over to the back gardens. Upon reaching her destination, Relena gasped and froze on the spot staring out in front of her.

Her cerulean blue eyes captured the view in front of her with an alluring appeal as she studied the sparkling black lake ahead, which was glistening, iridescently in the light and drifting serenely back and forth upon the banks.

Tall grass grew upon the banks, swaying gently in the light breeze, and in the background, many trees lingered steadily, their luscious green leaves rustling quietly in the engulfing silence. The moon reflected beautifully off the dark lake, shimmering with each movement of the water below and beckoning her towards it with a tantalising charm.

Relena pushed her draped gown off her shoulders and let it slip elegantly down her body, resting in a silken puddle at her pale feet.

Scanning the lake, once again, she was stunned to see that she wasn't alone on her midnight bathe. Hastily, picking up her gown, Relena threw it across her shoulders as the figure before her emerged from the vast blackness and walked steadily towards her.

"Well, well, well, look who decided to join me," Heero said casually, strolling towards the honey-blond girl.

He shook his head, and his unruly, damp hair, fell charmingly over his Prussian blue eyes.

"The water's nice, but cold, I thought that I should warn you…" He told her, grabbing his towel from a boulder and drying off his upper torso.

Glancing at Relena from the side of one eye, he caught her gaping at him, mouth dropped open and eyes widened. He turned to face her, raising his eyebrows blatantly in question and returning to drying himself, but not before noticing the slight blush that reached the young women's cheeks.

"I- uh, - who said that I was going into the water?" she asked him, placing her hands on her hips and staring at him, waiting for a response.

"Well," Heero started, throwing his towel back down and staring back at her, stoically, "You happen to be wearing you're swimming costume, and unless you usually wander around, at the edges of lakes, in your swimwear; I figured that you were thinking of taking a dip. I apologize if I'm wrong."

Relena stared at him, with a strange look of shock on her face. Heero had just _apologized_. "Hmph, fine_ sparky, _I admit that I was going to go for a swim, however, now that you're here, I've decided to change my mind."

"No, don't let me stop you, I'm happy to watch from here," Heero told her, with a ghost of a smirk crossing his lips.

Relena glared at him, "Suit yourself," and depriving her body of the warmth of her gown, she walked past him toward the large lake.

Heero watched her, with an amused smile on his face, from the top of the boulder, where he had positioned himself. The determined girl walked straight to the banks, and without much hesitation, placed one pale foot into the black water before jumping out in surprise. Her light squeal reached his ears from where he was sitting and he chuckled humorously, laughing at her quirky antics.

She glared back at him from where she stood before strolling straight into the water, waist-deep and ducking under.

Heero had to admit, she was brave, in a stubborn, childish sort of way.

She swam a few times around the outskirts of the pool, nearest to him, before he decided to join her.

Heero crept through the tall grass, and upon reaching the highest ledge of the lake, he glanced down; the water rippled a few feet below him due to Relena's constant splashing, and the grass around his feet careened back and forth in the breeze, tickling his feet with serrated edges. In the distance, he could see Relena floating on top of the lake, her arms paddling at her sides to keep her afloat and her gaze drifting up to the blazing stars, millions of miles away.

Smirking, Heero positioned himself quickly and jumped off the ledge in a deviating arc, soaring through the cold night's air, his trunks flapping against his skin, and posing himself to dive into the icy, bitter water beneath, he aeronautically glided down with elegance.

He broke through the freezing, cold layer of liquid, quickly and silently, with only a few rippling currents breaking the almost calm surface, and he coursed freely through the lake with agility and poise.

Breaking back through the surface again, quietly, he inhaled deeply and descending once again, he swam underwater towards the floating girl.

Grabbing her thin shimmering ankle, he heard the vibrations of her startled cry and brought his head to the top, grinning at the distressed blonde.

"Heero! That was not funny. God, are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Relena exclaimed, glaring daggers at him, her light eyes narrowing venomously.

Heero laughed in response, almost losing his cool balance, and having to paddle to keep floating.

"So, why are you out here anyway?" Heero asked, gaining his composure again, "Is this your usual nightly routine?"

"No," Relena answered coldly, "I couldn't sleep."

"Bad dreams?" He asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"No," Relena responded, rather too promptly, Heero eyed her suspiciously before she added, "I'm just not tired."

"That's because you slept long enough on the way down here."

"Ugh, you're such a jerk… you know that?" she asked him, swimming over to the edge to grab onto a rock, which was protruding from the bank, in order to hold her stability.

Heero swam past her, lifting himself back onto the banks with a swift effort and turning back around to face her, his eyebrows furrowing into a frown.

"I'm leaving, it's okay _princess_, I won't scare you anymore…" he said before stumbling back up the hill to grab his towel.

'_Hello Princess…' _The words from her previous dream echoed through her head violently, ricocheting in her mind and thundering loudly in her ears.

Panicking, Relena pushed herself away from the boulder, in her haste to lose the chilling voice.

_Blood-spattered black chains… clicking heavily against the misty ground… cold, icy hands…_

Relena closed her eyes… trying to drown out her thoughts, but only being able to half drown herself.

_Hands… hundreds of hands clasping cold, bitter fingers around her fragile body and torturing her tired mind… pulling, tugging her deeper…_

She couldn't breathe… why couldn't she breathe? Slowly opening her eyes, Relena realized the reason; she was underwater… deep under.

'_Be careful… promise me… sweetheart?' A biting chill crept through her body… caressing her with openly callous arms…_

Heero looked back over his shoulder instinctively, checking that the hotheaded girl was okay, and was shocked to find, that in actual fact, she wasn't.

"Relena?" he called out to the dark and eerily silent lake. Dashing to the edge of the banks, he noticed the bubbles and ripples that submerged up to the surface and the faintly pale body, growing further away from him by the minute. "Shit," he muttered to himself, diving into the water again without hesitation, the sub-zero water pricking his skin with ice cold needles and the pressure ripping at his eardrums as he slid further below the façade.

'_It's dangerous…' a long dark corridor… leading to her downfall… summoning her fascination…_

Relena struggled against the feeling… but she was captivated, bound to strict movements… and suffocating.

_Blindingly, bright lights… 'Hello Princess…'_

His malicious voice tore at her heart as she wrestled to keep her consciousness.

'_Miss me?'_

She was fading into the background… dying. Soon, her thrashing ceased and she grew still; listening to the last, slow and unsteady beats of her pounding heart. The scene was growing darker, numbed with a callous shadow… until eventually there was… nothing.

'_See doll? You're all mine…'_

Heero fought against the current; pushing his way, swiftly, through the dark liquid that hindered him from reaching his goal.

'Relena…' his mind was racing, wildly, 'please be okay.' He pushed his way towards her flaccid corpse, which was drifting through the dark water, lifelessly.

Grabbing hold of her limp body, he thrust his legs heavily off the water beneath him, propelling himself and her to the surface, and once breaking through, he gasped for air, letting the stale breath that he had been holding escape from his lips to mingle with nature.

Hauling her fragile body onto the grassy grounds of the banks, he dropped to his knees, grabbing Relena's wrist and checking frantically for a pulse.

"Shit…"

'_Don't… walk into the light angel…' Matthew's distant voice called to her from between the overwhelming twilight._

_Relena stared at him anxiously, her heart was thumping brutally and painfully in her chest, as though someone was grabbing it and trying to rip it from her body… she was pretty sure that this was the doing's of Matthew._

'_I've… got a heartbeat… I'm alive?' she swallowed and then stared down at her ghostly pale hands, which were glowing with a dim aura. _

'_Don't get your hopes up yet,' Matthew warned her, taking a step out of the darkness, and a step towards her, 'It's only an illusion…'_

'_You're lying…' she spat rancorously, 'what have you done?'_

'_No, Relena, the question is… what have _you_ done?' Matthew recoiled, his leer lingering on her shivering body._

_Relena spun around, staring curiously at the corridor ahead… wondering…_

'_Don't even think about it,' Matthew presaged, as if reading her thoughts, 'don't open the doors…'_

'_Why not?' Relena asked him, glaring at him with a burning hatred. What had he done to her? Where was she? And most importantly, how did she get here?_

'_You don't want to know… in fact, maybe you do, those doors lead to a different dimension; each door is a diverse portal, which will lead you to another realm of hell.'_

'_Huh? This is crazy,' Relena cried anxiously, running down the corridor and away from _him

'_Wait!' He called after her, Relena heard his thundering footsteps following her every movement, and without turning back, she forced herself to keep running, anywhere that would get her out of this… this… hell._

_Tripping over an invisible object, Relena stumbled, and fell – not so graciously – to the floor with an echoing slam._

_She unwillingly rolled over, as if somebody was forcing her with strong, assertive hands. Instantly she felt a drowning wash of frost sweep through her numb body, and she shuddered violently, jerking uneasily and choking on seemingly nothing._

"Relena…?"

_Somebody was calling her… for a daunting moment she thought that Matthew had caught up to her, that in truth, she was actually his, and would be for eternity…_

"Relena…"

_It was louder this time, calling to her, beckoning her return… but to where?_

"Damn it, Relena, breathe…"

_Breathe? The word scrambled across her mind as she searched for comprehension… and then with a strangling thought she remembered… Pain…_

"Don't do this to me, not now…"

_Exerting and inhaling a cutting asphyxiated breath, she finally felt it… glorious fresh air, reaching her bursting lungs and oxygenating her heart with an excruciatingly cutting ache._

She choked and spluttered as Heero grabbed her – now responsive – body and twisted her to the side, ensuring that she wouldn't suffocate again on the water, which her lungs was trying to pump out.

"Oh, god…" He inhaled deeply, and exhaled as he watched her body struggle to take a grasp to life again.

Collapsing back down to the ground, Relena gasped in another few raspy and uneven breaths before slowly opening her eyes and consuming her surroundings with hungry eyes.

Heero peered down at her and a slow smile appeared on his face as she frowned up at him with confused eyes.

"I thought I'd lost you there… Thank god. What were you trying to do?" He asked, somewhat angrily.

"What? What do you mean? When? Heero, where am I?" Relena asked with a perplexed look gracing her pretty features.

"When you tried to drown yourself there now, in the lake… remember? I thought you said you weren't tired, and who sleeps while they're swimming anyway?" Heero replied, leaning his back against the base of a large tree but never faltering his gaze from hers.

"I drowned?" Relena asked enquiringly, a hint of disbelief tracing her voice and her head spinning slightly with the dizziness and lack of oxygen.

"Yes, you_ nearly_ drowned," Heero explained.

"I don't get it…" Relena said, her vision of Heero was blurry and making her feel ill, it was like going really fast on one of those rides at the funfairs that her father used to take her to when she was younger.

Suddenly it hit her, like a blow to the head, the pain, torturous, nightmarish visions, voices… and Matthew…

"If I hadn't pulled you out of the water and resuscitated you, let's face the facts, we would have lost you. Is that clear enough?" He asked with a slight smirk.

"Thanks," Relena said, grimacing faintly before recalling her thoughts. "Heero?" she asked somewhat frenetically.

"What?" He had regained his breath, and was now kneeling beside her, examining her body…

Scanning her body with careful hands and cautious eyes, Heero sighed in relief. There were no serious injuries, just a few minor grazes. He pulled a cloth from his pocket and dabbed her head with it.

"What are you doing?" Relena asked him, closing her eyes drowsily.

"Tending to your wounds, you're bleeding, I can't have you catching an infection," He clarified, "your brother would kill me… not that I couldn't deal with his wrath, I just couldn't be assed with it right now..."

Frowning, he glared down at her, "Relena, don't go to sleep."

Relena snapped her cerulean blue eyes open, and they glistened up at him in the moons graceful glow. "Huh?" she asked hazily, "Why not?"

"Because, you've hit your head, you may have a concussion, if you go to sleep, well, you may just end up like Trowa." He grimaced at his poor choice of words as he hoisted Relena's small form into his strong arms.

"Trowa…" Relena whispered, her eyes closing slightly, "I have to go to sleep, Trowa…" Heero frowned down at her in confusion, "I'm tired."

"I know you are; since I was the one to rescue your sleepy ass from an endless dream in the lake, and I'm Heero by the way," He grabbed their things and shoved them into Relena's hands, "Hold these."

Relena did as she was told without arguing, or even opening her eyes.

"I think we need to get you to the hospital, " He told her, whilst climbing the uneven lands and holding her drowsy body in his arms, "Oi, don't go to sleep," he growled, purposefully jerking her body, causing azure blue eyes to wrench open and stare at him, innocently.

"Yeah… the hospital," Relena moaned, as they traipsed through the hotel's plush gardens, imprinting heavy footprints with each of Heero's steps.

'Trowa's at the hospital…' she thought silently, as Heero shoved her small frame into the backseat of his silver BMW. 'I'll get to see him again at last…"

"Relena I mean it, _don't_ go to sleep," Heero warned, glaring back at her from the driver's seat whilst thrusting the keys into the ignition and revving the car.

'What does it matter? We're going to the hospital…' Her mind rambled on deliriously as her body prepared itself for a long slumber.

"If you go to sleep, you may _never_ wake up again… Relena please, listen-"

Relena's mind cut out the rest of Heero's rant as she shut her eyes, torpidly.

'I'm getting to see Trowa again, nothing else matters now…'

"Wake me when we get there," she groaned, almost incoherently, but Heero caught it.

Her mind began to shut down… she couldn't think straight anymore, but she could still here Heero faintly in the background…

"Relena," he called out to her, "I won't be able to-"

However, it was too late, her brain had already shut down, drowning out any further actions she may have done, sounds she might have heard and feelings that she might have felt.

* * *

'_The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance' – Fdr_

A/N – Tadaa, so? Was I good? Please say I was lol. Anyway, I apologize for the long wait, as I have told some people, namely Rebecca, I have been cursed with a summer job and now I have hardly any time to actually think up plots etc. However, I still manage to set aside some time for myself, and I spend quite a lot of this time writing this, ahah I lie, I spent two days on this, actually, two parts of a day, I'd say about six hours, but that's long enough lol.

Long enough for you guys to BLESS me with LONG REVIEWS! Hehe, I loved the reviews last time, you guys rock more than uh… the greatest rock band out there (I will not say which, because we all have personal views, and I don't want you to hate me because of mine lol)

Anyway, **important note:** In the next chapter, I will be doing shout outs to each review. I will do this every so often to show you guys that I do, in fact, admire your views and opinions and to answer a few of your questions (ones which will not spoil the plot that is) so if you have anything you'd like to be replied to, do review with your thoughts etc.

Thanks! Below I broke a few verses out of one of my fave bands songs. The song is; a walk through hell by Say Anything. I feel that this is rather significant to this chapter, and I also thank 'Say Anything' for handing me inspiration for this specific chapter. (p.s. I cut out a few inappropriate verses) Love y'all, Allura...

* * *

_And if I could swim I'd swim out to you in the ocean,_  
_ Swim out to where you were floating in the dark._  
_ And if was blessed I walk on the water you're breathing,_  
_ To lend you some air for that heaving sunken chest._

_And if I was brave I'd climb up to you on the mountain,  
They led you to drink from their fountain, spouting lies.  
And I'd slay the horrible beast they commissioned,  
To steer me away from my mission to your eyes._

_  
And I'd stand there like a soldier with my foot upon his chest.  
With my grin spread and my arms out in my bloodstained Sunday's best,  
And you'd hold me I'd remind you who you are under their shell._

_  
I'd walk through hell for you. Let it burn right through my shoes.  
These soles are useless without you._

_Through hell for you,  
Let the torturing ensue. My soul is useless without you._

_  
And if they sent a whirlwind, I'd hug it like a harmless little tree.  
Or an earthquake, I'd calm it, and I'd bring you back to me,  
And I'd hold you in my weak arms like a first born._

_  
Now, I've walked through hell for you,  
what's an adventurer to do  
but rest these feet at home with you_

**_A Walk through Hell -- Say Anything _**


	14. Absconding

**Between Love and Hate**

**Chapter thirteen: Absconding**

Aquamarine eyes snapped open, staring distractedly at the white ceiling above, as the morning sun's rays danced elegantly, casting playful patterns and subtle designs across the ceiling in beautiful shades of gold.

A floral scent roused his senses as he breathed in deeply, succumbing to the delicacy of his wife's floral scented, platinum blonde hair.

Rolling over, the young man stared at the stunningly beautiful women beside him and raising his hand slightly, he pushed a few stray strands of hair away from her serene face.

"What time is it?" The young women asked, stirring Quatre from his deep thoughts, and opening her light blue eyes, she stared at her husband sleepily.

Quatre glanced past her pale face and towards the silver clock placed on their dressing table. "Seven thirty, would you like to get up yet, or shall I leave you to sleep for a while?"

Dorothy smiled slightly, and closing her glassy blue eyes again she responded, "I'll get up shortly, just give me a few more minutes." She pulled Quatre closer to her and placing her lips on his, she kissed him.

Quatre placed his hands behind her head, drawing her closer to him and intensifying the innocent kiss into something much deeper, more passionate and more emotional.

Dorothy pulled away after a few minutes, a satisfied smile on her face, and lay back down on her pillow, ready to fall back asleep.

Quatre pulled himself out of the bed, and crossing the cold wooden floor, he locked himself in the en suite, and prepared for a shower.

Once he had removed his clothes, he twisted the silver knob of the shower and watched the pressurized water pour down heavily and beat loudly against the ceramic tiles of the shower.

Running his hand through the water to test the temperature, he was shocked to find that it was ice cold. Frowning, he adjusted the settings and tested it again.

'Perfect,' he thought as he ran his hand through the mildly hot water and stepped into the shower, pulling the glass door shut behind him.

Steam built up against the glass and after condensing, ran coolly down the door in beaded rivulets.

Quatre closed his eyes, enjoying the relaxing feeling the warmth poured over his tense body. However, when the water suddenly changed to boiling hot, he yelled in shock and jumped back, out of the shower.

Frowning once again, Quatre stared at the settings on the power box, noting that they had suddenly been twisted to full heat. Adjusting them once again, Quatre cautiously stepped back into the shower. Nevertheless, he was only inside for a few seconds before he heard the knob twisting again, this time turning back to the icily cold water that he had experienced earlier.

Quatre jumped out, and grabbing a towel from the hanger, he wrapped it around his lower body and turned the shower off.

"Stupid damn shower," he muttered under his breath, as he dried his hair with a separate towel.

"Quatre?" Dorothy's muffled voice called through to him.

"Yes, darling?" Quatre replied, quickly dressing.

"Is everything okay? I heard you yelling."

"Yes everything is fine, I'm just having a little trouble with the shower. If you need one, I suggest that you ask to use Hilde's instead." Quatre opened the bathroom door and smiled warmly at his wife.

"Wow, Quatre, it's roasting in there." Dorothy stated, gesturing to the steam that swarmed out of the en suite.

Quatre nodded, "I'm going down for breakfast, I'll see you down there soon."

-----------------------------------

"I don't understand," Quatre started, as he rested his forehead in his hand and glared, confusedly down at the table, "are you sure they aren't anywhere in the hotel… or the grounds?"

"Yes, Quatre, I've already told you. Every perimeter and boundary of the hotel and the acres surrounding it have been thoroughly searched." Zechs told him, annoyed that he doubted his words.

"I know, I know… it's just-"

"You don't understand," Hilde added solemnly, "nobody does, Quatre. I can't find any evidence of struggling or kidnapping anywhere."

"Thanks, Hilde," the Arabian boy sighed deeply and gazed up into the anxious eyes of Milliardo Peacecraft. "What do you propose we do?"

"Mobiles?" Zechs asked as a sudden wave of thought hit him, "Has anybody tried calling them, god dammit?"

Hilde glanced sheepishly at the pair of them before dashing off to the nearest payphone, "I'll call Lena, you guys get hold of Heero!" she called back to them.

Quatre fished his phone out of his back pocket, and flicking up the cover, he speed dialled Heero's number.

"Hello?" It was answered after three rings.

"Hello… Nikki?" Quatre asked, unsurely.

"Yes, who is this?" The girl asked, her Spanish accent ringing out to him.

"Quatre, look Nikki, I was just wondering whether you had seen Heero this morning," There was some fidgeting noises drifting from the other receiver and the sound of ruffling quilts.

"Uhh… Quatre, he's… not here." Nikki replied, the confusion and bewilderment strongly underlining her tone.

"That's what I thought, we checked up there this morning when you were sleeping, but no one answered the door, and well… you know Heero, he's a light sleeper and an early riser, so we reckoned that he wasn't there…" Quatre drifted off, upon realising that he was rambling, "Well, thank you for your help Nikki, come down and get some breakfast when you are ready."

"Umm okay," Nikki answered, unfocused. Quatre realized that she was probably searching for Heero.

"Goodbye," he snapped the phone shut and looked at Zechs, who was staring back, knowingly.

"Heero's car is gone," Quatre glanced up towards the newcomer and smiled slightly.

"Do you think they may have gone out… somewhere?" Quatre asked the Chinese man.

Wufei shrugged and turned his attention to Duo, who was quickly approaching them.

"Hilde said that Relena's phone is off, she can't get through." He told them as he fiddled with the end of his chestnut braid, nervously. "Also, I spoke to the receptionist; she said that two people – both of whom fitted Relena and Heero's descriptions – left the hotel, late last night, but never came back in."

"Well… this is just great," Zechs voiced his thoughts, "What are we supposed to do now?"

_Ring_

_Ring_

Quatre grabbed his vibrating phone quickly off the table and flipped it open, holding it carefully to his right ear.

"Quatre Winner, speaking."

"Quatre…" the deep voice called to him through the receiver. Relief flooded through his body, relaxing each of his tensed muscles.

"Heero… where _are_ you?" He asked, his voice laced with slight anger towards his friend.

"At the hospital, listen," Quatre's body tightened again as the stoic solider spoke, "Relena's with a doctor at the minute… she hit her head last night, I don't know how she is yet, the doctors won't let me in. Only family is allowed in to see her until visitor hour or something."

"What? Heero, what is going-"

"I'll explain when you get here, bring Zechs quick." The dial tone only faintly registered in the back of Quatre's mind as the former Wing pilot hung up.

"What is it?" Duo asked, noticing the strange look upon Quatre's face.

"They're at the hospital."

-----------------------------------

"I told you already, she hit her head on a rock," Relena was awakened by the sound of Heero's voice, echoing angrily through the small room from the corridor.

She blinked a few times, adjusting to the lights and wondering where, exactly, she was.

'The hospital,' it registered in her mind along with the strong smell of antiseptics and sterile rooms. The beeping from the monitor beside her bed relentlessly droned on as she tried to focus on the conversation outside.

"I don't see why I can't see her, I brought her here, do you really think that if I had wanted to eliminate her, I would have carried her here?"

Relena grimaced slightly at the anger in his voice… 'Such emotion,' she thought, 'what is wrong with him?' She had honestly never heard Heero like this before; normally he was angry in a silenced, aggravated sort of way.

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she glanced around the sickeningly white room, studying everything from the machines that were monitoring her status, the greenish glass windows; adorned with checked square lines to the wire leading to the drip, administrating liquid substances into her arm.

Sighing, she pulled the drip out of her arm, grimacing as a stinging pain shot, back and forth, up her arm.

She threw her legs in an arc, over the edge of the bed, shivering from the coldness of the metal bar beneath her and watched Heero through the slightly distorted, hospital window. He ran a shaky hand through his hair and stared at the women in the white dress before him.

"Sir, please, calm down. As soon as visiting times are open, I will let you in to see her. However for now, there are a few forms that I need you to fill out," The nurse told him, with a soothing calmness.

Relena watched as Heero was lead, by the nurse, into another room, and was drenched with relief when neither realized that she was awake.

Seeing that the coast was clear, she climbed down from the bed, throwing the white sheets off her body and startling when her feet found the freezing cold, polished floor underneath her.

-----------------------------------

"Okay, Mr Yuy…" the nurse set a set of notes in front of Heero, "If you could sign here…" she pointed with a pen, to a blank on the page, and Heero, taking the pen off her, scribbled a quick signature across the dashed line, "and here…"

The signing continued as the nurse pointed to many more various places and Heero continued to scratch his mark, roughly onto the pages, after scanning through numerous notes.

"What were you thinking? And why were the two of you _swimming,_ in the lake, in the _middle_ of the night?" Zechs growled angrily as he entered the small room, set on interrogating the unknowing Heero.

Heero's head shot up from the paperwork as the ex white-fang leader burst through the door like a strong whirlwind. The nurse beside him squeaked from shock, and stumbled back a few steps, staring at the forebodingly tall man, whilst Heero merely stared at him calmly, as if he had anticipated this sort of reaction.

"Zechs, I'm glad you're here," It faintly registered in his mind that this was the first time he had spoken to the silvery-blond haired man since _the_ incident, three years ago. "I need you to fill out a few of these forms for me."

"And why can't you do it?" Zechs remarked, looking down upon the dark, tanned man below him.

"Because," Heero looked up from the paperwork again, and turning around slightly, he leaned casually against the counter, not letting Zechs behaviour get to him, "I'm not related to her, am I?"

"Heero," A platinum blonde, young man strolled into the room, his pale face riddled with curiosity and anxiety, "What's happened, is she okay?"

"I've been told a few things, but as soon as Moody here," Heero gestured with a strong tanned hand, towards Zechs, who glared at him and folded his long arms across his chest, "fills in these forms, the sooner we can get in to see her, and the sooner we can receive more relevant details."

"Fine," Zechs snarled whilst snatching the pen from Heero's hand. The nurse pushed a few forms across the counter and towards Zechs, who filled in the spaces where she pointed a manicured nail; Heero watched from the side with a proud smirk at having had the upper hand to the situation.

After the forms were filled out, the nurse led the pilots and friends to Relena's room.

"So can you explain what happened, exactly?" Duo asked, an interested glimmer in his cobalt blue eyes.

"She almost drowned," Heero stated plainly, unwilling to go into further explanation.

"Well, I guess that we all grasped that, Heero, but how did it get to that?" asked an exasperated Sally.

"She hit her head when she was swimming," Heero stated, once again adorning his trademarked monotonous voice and stoic expression, each of which, were a great annoyance to all of his friends.

"Heero," Hilde moaned, hitting her head in frustration, against the palm of her hand.

"Fine, you want details?" Heero asked, losing his cool façade, "Well, I'll give you what I do know, which I have to say, isn't exactly much. I was out, having found the lake earlier on in the night, and decided to take a swim to relax slightly," Duo snorted in amusement, as if the thought of Heero relaxing entertained his thoughts. Heero glared at his American friend, "Then half way through one of my laps, I noticed Relena walking towards the water, and so I got out to talk to her…"

"And then you changed your mind, and decided to toss her to the bottom instead," Zechs added, with a mixture of mockery and seriousness, "How nice of you." He added, sardonically.

Heero glared, his Prussian blue eyes seemingly cutting through Zechs, "If I had have wanted to kill her, don't you think that I would have had plenty of time to do that before tonight," He was strangely reminded of his earlier conversation with the medical staff, whose conversation with him seemed to follow the same lines. Why was it that everyone had suddenly decided that he was such a threat? "And why would I have jumped back in, rescued her, and brought her here, if I had have wanted her to die? You really are pathetic."

Zechs seemed somewhat offended by this comment, and turned his eyes away from the young Japanese man, allowing him to win the staring match, and pulled his wife in closer to his chest.

"I don't understand how it all happened, one minute she was fine, doing what she usually does. You know… her habitual remarks and usage of offensive words, trying all that she could to annoy me; show me just how much she _really _does hate me." He said, sounding almost irritated by his own words, "And so I did as she wished; she wanted me gone, I was gone. I got out of the water and was collecting my things," Heero made sure to hide the fact that he had earlier scared the young women, in the water. He felt that it wouldn't go down too well with her over-protective, older brother, "when I turned back around, for one last glance; she was nowhere to be seen."

He shrugged, gesticulating that even he, didn't know what had ensued, "so I jumped in and caught her, when I brought her back up to the surface, I carried her onto the banks, resuscitated her and checked that she was able to breathe, I noticed the gash on her head and figured it would be best to bring her here. That enough detail for you?" He didn't wait for an answer and left his companions with great strides, to catch up with the nurse.

They stood there in shock, staring at each other with agape mouths and disbelieving eyes. That was undoubtedly the first time that any of them had heard Heero string more than five words together at a time.

Quietly, they quickened their pace to catch up with Heero and the medical attendant, each re-running Heero's words in their heads and trying to decipher what had happened.

Once they reached Relena's temporary room, the nurse glanced quickly in through the window, to check on the presumed, sleeping girl. A troubled gasp left her painted red lips as she clasped her hand over her mouth.

"Where- where…" She muttered, "Where has she gone?" She speedily swung around towards Heero and pointed blaming eyes in his direction.

"What?" Heero asked, seemingly annoyed at the accusation, but there was little change in his tone and facial expression, "I was with you the whole time," his voice started to rise slightly, "How the _hell_ could I have taken her out?"

-----------------------------------

Small, soft feet padded across the cold, sterile and polished floors of the wards and the slight thuds echoed through the silent corridors.

Glancing around hastily, cerulean blue eyes nervously inspected the area for forms of life whilst pale delicate hands swept wavy honey-blond locks from a fair, cherubic face.

Relena ran a hand through her tousled hair, silently cursing the lake water for causing it to frizz and wav, and using her fingers, she pried the knots from her tresses.

Spotting a figure dressed in white rounding a corridor, she ducked into one of the rooms and waiting until the doctor had passed, Relena released a sigh of relief.

She cast a fleeting look across the plain, pallid room and as soon as she passed the notice board, her eyes scanned a few familiar words before continuing on, halting and quickly glimpsing back towards the document pinned upon the wooden chipboard.

'Trowa Barton' the paper read. Relena recklessly stumbled across the room on unstable and trembling legs, making her way over to the clipboard, and lifting the board from its place.

'Condition: Stable, comatose, wounds healing well and injuries recovering with accurate attention'. Relena's eyes darted towards the empty bed in the middle of the room, and after staring for a few moments, she exited the room, a stern look of confusion adorning her features.

Continuing her lonely trek along the corridors, Relena peered into each room with scrutinizing eyes, searching fervently for the cinnamon brown hair that she longed to se so badly.

Passing a storage cupboard, she sighed heavily upon having no luck in finding the usually silent soldier and stopped to stare, blankly ahead, her eyes resting on the long corridor and the small window, shedding fragments of daylight through its semi-transparent and bubbly glass.

However, she was startled out of her reveries as a strong hand wrapped tautly around her mouth and another around her waist, pulling her hastily into a dark closet.

Having closed her eyes from the surprise, Relena opened them to be coldly embraced with a tense darkness, drawing a deep breath; she braced herself to relieve a loud shriek, perhaps to scare her captor.

"Don't scream," he warned, holding the hand firmly over her mouth before letting go and spinning her around.

In the darkness, Relena could vaguely make out the basic details of her captor, however, as soon as recognition hit, she gasped in shock.

* * *

'_Hatred ever kills, love never dies. Such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred' -- __Mohandas K. Gandhi_

A/N – I am so sorry about the delay, but it's up now, and that's all that matters… Right? Oooh I'm wrecked, just back from a Tennants Vital Concert… SO GOOD! I bounced all of my energy out of me, so please excuse any mistakes and typos etc.

I know this chapter wasn't intensely thrilling. But i can't always have you guys thrilled out of your little bones lol. Danger will ensue in the next chapter.

Thank you so much for the reviews, they definitely cheered me up –

**TheEvilAshleyness** – Thanks for the review, I'm glad you're enjoying. Hope that this one doesn't disappoint.

**Keeroshu** – Subconscious thing, lol, or is it? Yeah, supernatural it kind of is, but then again, it's what I'm striving for; a bit of mystery (grins). And yes, he does care for her, and he isn't really cold to her, normally it's the other way around (weird, I know) but the reason is that neither want to let the other know they care, because they don't want to fall for each other lol. Hehe, they're trying to fight fate. There's really no point in me answering your last questions, because, well, they've already been answered in this lol! Thanks for the review!

**LiStEn2UrHeArT2 **– Aww, thank you, so much! I'm flattered, really. It would suck for Relena to have gone into a coma, but as you can see, she hasn't!

**RayxJade **– Yes, indeed I did end it and another cliffhanger here to. You must love me (raises an eyebrow to her sarcastic remark) Thank you for the compliments, they mean a lot to me. I can't say who she's going to end up with. That would _totally_ spoil the plot; and I wouldn't want to do that now… (Smiles)

**edhel-tarien** – Lol, that's okay, I love the attempt at a long review, it's the thought that counts… huh. Yeah, ditto, I loved that twist too; don't know how it came to me though lol. Oh… the randomness that runs through my twisted mind lol. Oh and, Matt and Heero will meet, um… I can't remember what chapter, but we have a wee bit to go to get there. Don't worry though, I'll try to keep you occupied, I have a few twists up my sleeves, (grins mischievously)

**ABeautifulDisgrace **– (smiles) Yay, I accomplished what I sought to do. Gosh, I love you so much (platonically of course) your reviews totally give me that happy bubble of excitement! Yeah, I know, I love Trowa and Relena, but I love Heero and Relena, so I'm kind of struggling with my mind to do this fic. It's kind of hard, like an ongoing battle in my mind. That's great, about your fic I mean. I'll review again soon, when I get time, but yeah, I love it!

**kay jolyn** – Lol, hooked, I like that. Kind of makes me feel like an angler though, you know, with the rod and all my readers snapped with a hook. Eww, that's weird, okay, I'll be quiet and answer you questions lol. OoC Heero rocks my little fictional world lol. He's got the whole bad-boy attitude going on, and frankly, I LOVE IT! I'm glad you do to.

**Rinny Leonheart** – Maybe, maybe not. I think it's just a wee thing. And yeah, haha, that really irritated Heero, how I love doing that! Thanks!

**Rachele – **Thanks for the review! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

**Indigo-dimond** – Lol, thanks, I'm really flattered, I'm definitely not the best at this, but to hear comments like yours, well it just helps me strive to achieve my best!

**Eva Maverx** – No worries, you reviewed here, and that's all that really mattered, thanks a lot! Lol, I've heard that comment a lot; although this chapter has a few exciting twists, I don't quite get the buzz.

**10-Midnight-01** – Lol, that's okay, thanks for reviewing. Hope your doing okay with your own fics.

**Jen** – sorry, I can't comment on the pairings, but I can say that there will be some action between those two characters lol. Thanks you for the compliment (blushes)

**charlie00** – (hugs Charlie) yay, my no.1 fan! Lol. Yeah, well the holidays were nice, but I missed typing a lot. Which is kind of weird, seeing as there were millions of HOT guys on the beach, adorned in only surf shorts and revealing there lovely tanned bodies (ahem) sorry lol. Really, you can imagine being there? That's cool, really. I'm glad you love this fic, I'm afraid that EY is going to end soon, probably only a few more chapters to go. But there'll be plenty more, (grins).

**Saigo no Megami** – Lol, loving your enthusiasm, a lot! Drugs? Heero? Haha, your imagination runs wild! No way, _no_ way. He's just confuzzled. Poor thing. Nope not Matt, you'll find out soon, I think lol. I can't quite remember.

**Leylass** – I will finish it, don't fret. I just have a lot of things on my mind (results… yikes) and well, it just takes me a lil' longer to update. Thanks for the review.

**Janine-chan** – Whoa, three reviews… I love you. Lol. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

**Playmobile **– Intentional… yes kind of. Haha, Heero keeps getting swamped with drowning girls. But there's a difference. This time it was serious, and well, in chapter three that was just Nikki messing and being a flirt. Oh and trying to get Heero to admit his feelings for her… Sneaky eh? I can't tell you who the person was, or who the attack was directed towards, but he was linked to Matt, and in a few chapters you should understand. Sorry if I'm leaving any blank spaces. Yay, BINGO. You're sharp lol, picking up all of my little hints and stuff (grins) she is, in fact, becoming anorexic… silly girl, but then again, I guess the pressure of the press can do that. Haha, yeah, I love Heero's wee quirky comments and sarcasm, it just makes him… well fit perfectly into this character role I've handed him.

**Chikyuu-Defender-Beyblader** – Thank you, yeah she is kind of delusional with those wee sequences, but in a way, they are a main part of this lol. Links to the haunted theme lol. Thanks for reviewing (smiles)

**blissful trinity** – He is, isn't he… haha Heero… stop pretending that you don't! Oh yeah, that's my fault, right? Oh well, I love him this way. I love the series, I have it all on DVD, including 'Endless waltz' I cannot recall how many times I have watched it, but I'd have to say… too many lol.

**Leylass** – déjà vu? Lol… nope, you did review before, but that was for chapter one… silly me, aww well. Hehe, yeah, you will have to endure a lot of cliffies lol, including this one! Clean? As in… no bad language? I think I already broke that one… or like… no sex. I haven't planned any, and if there is any, there'll be no descriptions, I mean, haha, I don't really know what exactly goes on (grimaces) but yeah, hope that answers your questions.

**Computer geek michelle** – Thank you, glad your addicted lol. Hope you enjoy the future stuff that comes from my messed up mind lol.

**Nikki must die – **She must… mustn't she lol. Don't worry, I am a great fan of happily ever afters lol, or am I? I can't remember lol (grins mischievously). Hope you liked this chapter, more excitement should ensue in the next chapter… this one wasn't a great thriller.

Review? Please?

Love y'all

Allura


	15. Unforseen actions

**Between Love and Hate**

**Chapter fourteen: Unforeseen emotions**

The foreboding darkness smothered her, as dark eyes stared down at her mysteriously; daring her to do something, say something.

"I don't understand," she muttered, her voice warped with confusion as the hand was pulled away from her mouth, "What are _you_ doing in _here_?"

"Waiting for you." He stated plainly, as dark eyes trained onto hers through the heavy darkness.

"But- but how did you know that I was here?" She stammered, "And why wait in here… in the _dark_?" She shook her head confusedly, and his hand fell quickly off her shoulder, where it had been resting, to drop back to his side, somewhat sadly. Relena shuffled uncomfortably.

"I overheard some talking, and as for the dark… well, all the better to eat you, my dear." He grinned maliciously as he said this and Relena's face twisted in disgust.

"Ew, I think that concussion has left you with severely bad mental deformities." She replied.

"You think so?" Trowa's eyes flashed with amusement, and Relena could make out the small smirk that tugged at his lips, "I don't know… maybe it has. I felt like I was in a dream, a tiresome, forlorn dream. It was eccentric… maybe that had some effect to my mental state."

"What do you mean?" Relena raised an eyebrow, glad that her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, allowing her to seek out Trowa's tall form from amidst it. "And what has that got to do with you wanting to eat me?"

"It was a joke, Relena-" Trowa started.

"A joke? From you?" Relena asked, feigning astonishment.

"-And that story, I don't know, I think I've always liked it. It was sort of cool." He finished, his tone light and informal.

"You're quoting 'Little red riding hood'?" Relena asked, disbelievingly, "We should get you to a doctor-"

"… You were in my dream, you said something… interesting." He smirked, knowingly, as he leaned casually against a wall, crossing his long arms across his broad muscular chest and his eyes gleaming with an untamed passion.

"- ask him to just inspect your head once again – hold on _what_? What did I say?"

"I can only remember parts of it. It was strange, I felt as though I were floating through it, and there were these voices..." He continued on, ignoring Relena's comment, "Your voice. I remember yours the most distinctly." His eyes flickered to the ground and back up to hers again, "You were crying. For me."

Relena's heart started to thump wildly in her chest, and she could feel her face heat up as she remembered her last few moments with Trowa. Was it possible, that in his state of mind, he could still make out what was being said? "I was?"

"Yeah," in the dark, she could slightly make out his frown, his eyebrows deeply furrowed and his pensive eyes boring into her, "You told me that…" He turned his eyes away from her, shaking his head, his long bangs falling down to completely cover his mesmerising eyes, "Are you okay?"

"Huh? What do you mean? What did I say, Trowa?" Relena asked curiously, unperturbed by his question.

"Why are you here? Relena, what happened?" His voice was no longer chilled and relaxed; it was anxious and almost panicked.

"Nothing really, Trowa tell me…" She begged, desperate to know whether he had heard her or not.

"Are you hurt? It was Matthew, wasn't it?" He quickly grabbed her shoulders, shaking gently, as if trying to pry the answer from her.

"I'm not hurt; not really, I just… hit my head… I think." Trowa's frown grew deeper.

"What do you mean by _'you think'_?" He asked looking agitated.

"Well, that's what they told me, look listen-" she started quickly, but his deep husky voice cut her off.

"No, you listen to me, Relena; did Matthew have a part in this?"

Relena shook her head lightly, staring to the dark ground, which she reckoned was somewhere below her, 'unless you call haunting my dreams every night, hurting me.'

"No, he didn't. I was just foolish. I must have blacked out when I was swimming or something… Trowa, what did I say in your dream? You said that it was… interesting." Relena squirmed slightly as Trowa moved closer, pushing his muscular form gently against hers. Relena swallowed, hard as he pushed her hair away from her face.

"We should both get out of here soon," he whispered, his hot breath tickling her ear, "Before they realize that we've gone."

"But what did you-" she asked, ignoring the intensifying butterfly feeling that was building up in her stomach.

However, she was silenced as a pair of strong lips captured hers in their own. Her eyes snapped wide open, shocked towards what was happening. Nevertheless, as soon as it had started, he had pulled away, leaving the kiss chaste and innocent. He raised an elegant eyebrow, grinning slightly as he saw her stunned expression.

She stumbled back as she was released from his hold, her feet tripping on the scattered objects scattered along the floor. Her heart was beating madly in her chest, threatening to explode as she tried to recompose herself and analyse her thoughts.

"I heard you." Trowa assured her, as if he had been reading her thoughts. "Now go, quickly, I'll see you later." And with that, Relena found herself back in the bright corridor, the sterile smell of antiseptics and cleaning substances reaching her nose, causing it to scrunch up in revulsion.

She rubbed her eyes, regulating to the brightness after the stark contrast from the closet, and stared at the painted white, wooden door, unsure of what to do.

'What just happened?' She asked herself silently whilst running trembling hands through her tangled blonde locks.

"Relena!" A recognisable voice called out to her, but she couldn't place the owner, she turned sharply upon hearing heels clipping down the long hall and let her eyes fall upon the tall, tanned women in front of her. "Hi, I'm so glad I found you. How are you?" She smiled pleasantly as she stopped in front of her, her dark brown eyes gazing cheerily into hers.

Relena forced a smile upon her face, "I'm better thanks. Why are you here?"

Nikki frowned slightly, as if wondering why she was there, "I couldn't find your ward. Oh, and I needed to talk to Heero." Relena noted the way that her English was strongly clipped with a Spanish accent, and wondered briefly, how her English was so accurate. "So, will you take me to him? Please?"

Relena sighed inwardly and nodded her head, agreeing to the girl's request, thinking that they may as well be civil towards each other. Or try to be, since it was so out of character for her to feel so coldly towards another.

'That's what jealously does to you,' a voice inside her head beckoned to her, and she frowned, shaking her head as if to rid herself of the thoughts and persuade herself that they were, in fact, not true.

"So, I was thinking," Nikki started, and Relena bit back a bitchy comment about not knowing that models had the ability to think, "That this holiday hasn't exactly been, well, _fun_. In fact, it hasn't been fun at all." She concluded.

"Don't let Quatre hear you saying that, he's sensitive about things like that." Relena warned her.

"Oh no," Nikki replied, looking genuinely remorseful for her comment, "I didn't mean it _that_ way, I mean, Quatre's a sweet guy. He really is. But I just thought that we should spice it up a lit-" She was interrupted by a buzzing sound, registering from the bottom of her 'Kate Spade' bag. Relena grimaced; did this girl _only_ own designer clothes and accessories?

"Sorry, I've got to take this," she muttered distractedly, still fishing around in her bag.

"Okay, well my room's just here anyway. You may want to take that outside; they don't appreciate people using phones in hospitals." Relena stepped away from her, making her way towards her room and it was only when she had nearly entered her room that she heard the hurried and frantic voice of the Spanish girl, growing distant as she made her way out of the ward.

-------------------------------------

"Zechs, leave him alone. You know, too well, that he didn't do anything to her. In fact, he saved her life. You should be at least thankful for that!"

"Noin, stay out of this please." Zechs demanded pushing his way past his wife, who hastily grabbed his shoulder, reluctant to let him go.

"No, I will _not_ stay out of this. It is as much my business as it is yours. Just leave him alone, he may seem unemotional, but he's still human, believe it or not, he still has feelings just like the rest of us." Noin replied, as Zechs swung around to stare at her.

"Please, Lucrezia," Noin faltered, knowing that he only called her by her first name whenever he was seriously angry, "I don't want to argue right now."

"Well, we don't have to, so long as you promise me that you will leave him be." Noin declared, adamant to not let him go until she received his word.

"I don't like him, Lucrezia, and you know that. He's a cold, brutal, arrogant-"

"Remind you of anybody?" Noin asked calmly, massaging her fingers into her husband's shoulders, in hope that it would calm his frazzled nerves. "Whether you like it or not, Heero and yourself are both very alike. Maybe this is what clashes within you two; you're both too damned stubborn to back down."

Zechs visibly relaxed as he sunk into one of the sitting chairs in Relena's vacant room, his back slouched against the cushion and his head sinking into his hands, causing his hair to fall forwards, covering his face with a silvery curtain of silk. Noin ran her hand peacefully along his back.

"Zechs? Please?" she half begged.

"What?" He asked, pulling his head away from his hands to gaze at her with unknowing blue eyes.

"Promise me that you'll be civil. For me? And Relena?"

"Fine. Whatever you want," Zechs started, the anger of giving in clearly evident from his voice and facial expressions, "but I think that Relena should know-"

"I should know what?" She asked, standing casually at the doorway, using it for support and leaning heavily upon its sturdiness. For some unknown reason, she was tired and wanted to sleep for what seemed like forever, but she knew she couldn't, for _he_ would haunt her. As always. She didn't know how he did it, whether he knew he did it, or whatever, but what she did know, was that she could not give in to the nightmares. She would stay awake for as long as she could, she would fight. She would show him, that his _little princess_ could be strong.

"Relena!" Noin jumped up off her chair and walked quickly towards her, enveloping her sister-in-law with a friendly and comforting embrace. "We were so worried about you!"

Zechs growled and Relena snapped her eyes back open to stare at him.

"Nice to see you too, Milliardo." She replied sardonically, flicking her hair out of her eyes.

"Where were you?" He asked, "I was worried sick, what you did was foolish, and thoughtless…"

"Yeah, yeah, Milliardo, I'm fine, see?" she gestured her small hands down her body, "All in one piece."

"I'm glad to see that, but what were you thinking? Why were you out there in the middle of the night?" Zechs asked, rapidly, his questions spilling out in his foul temper.

"Milliardo, I am not in the mood for an interrogation." Relena moaned, sinking back into her bed and indulging in the feel of the comfortable mattress beneath her.

"Mr Peacecraft," A small chirpy woman appeared at the entrance to the room, clad in a white dress that fell to her knees and fit snugly around her small waist, "I need you to fill out a few release forms for me. My Yuy's already filled out the majority of them."

Zechs stood hesitantly, and looking towards Noin, she joined him, as they left the room, "We'll be back soon Relena," Noin called back before disappearing with the petite woman.

Closing her eyes slowly, she allowed herself to drift from consciousness, letting the previous events of the last trying days, gradually slip from her memory.

"So where did you disappear to?" The intense, husky voice roused her from near unconsciousness and Relena groaned in irritation. She glanced up quickly, letting her eyes roam over her visitor. Taking in the muscular form of his strong body as he stood, leaning coolly against the pillar of the door with a teasing yet mysterious smirk playing upon his lips.

"Relena?" He asked, knowingly, his Prussian blue eyes flashing with amusement as he noticed her gaze.

"Huh?" Relena questioned, blushing profusely, "Oh right, umm… no where really, just walking."

A questioning eyebrow was raised as he stared at her, doubtfully, before pushing himself off the pillar in one swift movement and walking towards her; each of his strides captivating and appealing. Intensely dark eyes fastened tightly to hers and Relena found herself swallowing… hard.

Her body temperature rose heatedly as he neared, and she fought a losing battle to attempt to maintain a constant heart pace.

"Are you feeling better?" He asked, sincerity tracing his deep voice and his piercing eyes softening, if only slightly.

Relena nodded lightly, her eyes never faltering from his as he bent down lower, resting his weight upon one knee. Relena inhaled deeply, sensing the entrancing scent of his cologne, and feeling her head spin with an unfound emotion.

'Get a grip, Relena.'

She closed her eyes, trying to recompose herself, but as she felt the rough sensation of callused fingers running gently and somewhat gently across her face, she snapped them open again, staring up at Heero in bewilderment.

His frown grew deeper as he pressed heavily upon her cheekbone, triggering a startled gasp to escape her lips.

"Ow," She complained, without thinking, however, she quickly realised the fault of her words as Heero scowled, pulling himself quickly away from her, as though she had suddenly caught fire.

Ignoring the wounded feeling that was throbbing in her chest and strangling her heart, she rapidly clasped her hand over her face.

"_What _is _that_?" Heero growled, his eyes growing steadily colder, regaining their usual piercing callous glare.

Relena remained silent, making it her objective to avoid his eyes by focusing on the bright bunch of daisies, which were occupying a far table, and fixing her eyes scantily upon the white, innocent petals.

"Relena," He barked angrily. Relena continued to ignore him, feeling the tension mount increasingly and thickly within the room, "Answer me, god dammit!" His hand grabbed her jaw with little care, forcing her to meet his gaze and as soon as her eyes had settled upon his, fear overtook her body. He was angry, extremely angry.

"It's just a bruise, Heero," Relena answered defensively, tipping her head away from his grip, "I walked into the edge of my closet." Pretty good if she said so herself, but unfortunately, Heero wasn't buying it. He growled lowly, causing a fluttering feeling to commence inside of her.

"You expect me to _believe_ that?" He snorted, backing away from her.

"Heero, don't-"

"Lena!" Hilde bounded into the room, a fresh bouquet of yellow roses carefully captured in her hand and a small, delicately wrapped box in the other, "Oh, I'm sorry, am I interrupting?" Hilde asked, smiling discreetly.

"No-"

"Yes."

"- You're not interrupting anything, Hilde," Relena answered, disregarding Heero's rude remark with a pointed glare at him and smiling warmly at her best friend.

Hilde's eyes glazed over with confusion, her eyebrows digging down to emphasize this and she opened her mouth as if to say something before snapping it shut again.

"_Right_…" She let out slowly, casting fleetingly curious looks at the two people who stood before her, one looking painstakingly angry and the other extremely embarrassed, "Well I'm sorry anyway."

Heero made a move for the door, but Hilde grabbed his arm, stopping his escape, "No, stay," she insisted, and without turning around, Heero nodded and moved to the back wall, leaning casually against it and letting his piercing glare fall onto Relena once again.

"Where's Duo?" Relena asked, ignoring Heero's intensely scrutinizing gaze and shifting uncomfortably as the heated sun's rays fell in through the open blinds, burning her skin with their golden light and causing a rapid rise in her temperature. And maybe Heero's heated glare had some addition to it too.

"He's with Wufei and Sally, doing… something…" Hilde shrugged and her dark blue hair fell into the sunlight, casting a golden halo around her now shoulder length dark hair. "These are for you, they're from Dorothy and me… but I lost her along the way. Another bicker with Quatre I'm guessing." She placed the bouquet onto the table, causing the foil wrapping to crinkle noisily under her hands as she let go and she pressed the small wrapped box into Relena's small hands.

"Thank you, Hilde," Relena commented, tugging at a silken ribbon and undoing the coverings. The paper fell open to reveal a small, delicate box of rich German chocolates; Relena smiled warmly, once again shifting in her bed in her efforts to avoid the excruciating heat.

"They're my favourites. I reckoned that you would like them too," Hilde replied as she sank comfortably into the visitors chair that Zechs had earlier occupied.

"You gave them to her without me?" Dorothy cried, appalled as she flew in the door, frowning deeply at Hilde before turning to Relena with a pleasant, graceful smile, "Relena, darling, I'm so glad to see that you're okay."

"I'm fine thanks, Dorothy, and thanks for the chocolates and flowers. Where did you disappear to anyway?" Relena asked curiously, staring at the girl in front of her, whose hair was slightly ruffled and misshapen.

Dorothy blushed deeply, looking quickly to the sparkling flooring. "I met Quatre in the hallways, and he just wanted to talk… he was umm… very excited."

Hilde chuckled lightly, and at that, Dorothy cast a questioning look towards her, before realising the double meaning of her words.

"Hilde, don't be so uncouth! He was mentioning something about being ecstatic that Trowa is finally being released."

Relena immediately sat up straight in her bed, she had been beginning to think that her close encounter with her bodyguard had been all but her imagination… a dream; however, upon hearing this, she was assured that the sweet kiss earlier, has actually been genuine.

Heero noticed this subtle movement and examined her even more curiously, a new light cast into his darkened eyes.

"Really? Released?" Relena asked, cocking her head inquisitively to the side.

"Yes, but can you believe he made it out of that coma? Although, I guess we can't put it past one of those guys to escape death once again." Dorothy pursued, making her way towards the table holding the flowers, and stroking the delicate petals with gentle fingers, "I'll go see if I can find a nurse who can put these in some water."

"I'll go with you, I need to find my beloved clown, anyway," Hilde added, throwing Relena a meaningful look and an insinuating wink before following Dorothy, massaging her swollen bump with her palm, unknowingly.

Relena watched her two friends leave, wanting the scream and shout for them to come back. How dare they leave her with Heero? Not now anyway, after he had found out about her secret, not now that she knew he was going to drill the answers that he wanted out of her. She wondered, briefly, how he would react when he found out and she sighed deeply.

The strong tension was suddenly back, invading her personal space and suffocating the air around her. She breathed in deeply, and thrust the covers of her body, sinking back into the mattress, a light sweat breaking out across her pale, thin body.

She felt a cool shadow envelope her body and with it, came the shuttering sound of the blinds being forced closed.

"Thank you," she rasped out in a croaky voice, which didn't sound anything like hers.

Opening her eyes, she stared at the face hovering centimetres above hers and started from the shock. How could he move so silently?

"Trowa, hn?" Heero's hot breath was released upon her already burning cheek and she unintentionally let out a shaky sigh.

"What?" She asked, mystification adorning her face and pale eyes.

"I never would have guessed that this would happen." Relena's brow creased in confusion as his eyes darkened dangerously.

"Heero- what?"

"Seems that we have many things piling up that we need to talk about. I'm starting to think that all these interruptions are intentional." He stood straight again and slowly tore his eyes away from hers, inhaling deeply.

"I don't under-"

However, Heero was already at the door, on feet as silent as death; he paused at the doorframe and shook his head lightly, "I'll talk to you later. Go to sleep," he demanded monotonously before disappearing from her view. A force too strong for Relena's control tugged at her heartstrings and she found herself becoming lost in the heavy heartbeat emerging harshly from her chest.

Apprehension dawned upon Relena in that one subtle shake of his head, he seemed almost disappointed… but why? He didn't have any valid reasons to be.

"_Don't do this to me, not now…" _

_His unfathomable blue eyes were cutting into her soul like sharpened blades._

A sudden involuntary shudder captured her body and she let her mind collapse into its dream-like state, giving into the overwhelming exhaustion.

_Heero peered down at her and a slow smile appeared on his face._

"_I thought I'd lost you there… Thank god."_

Relena unbound a confused, choked sob as she fell into a deep… dark slumber…

_Hello Princess… Trust me, there's no escape this time._

_

* * *

_

'_Love: a temporary insanity,' -- Anonymous_

A/N – I'm terribly sorry for the delay. All I can say is that 'school sucks' as does writer's block. My writing skills have been very dilapidated lately, and I have to relentlessly apologize for that, and for the fact that I may not be meeting yours or my own highest standards.

If this cursed thing continues, and if you think that I am getting much, much worse, I will put this on hiatus until I can get a hold of what's happening. So guys… tell me, because the short term fate of BLaH lies in _your_ hands.

Love y'all

Allura


	16. Drastic methods

**Between Love and Hate**

A/N – sorry for the delay! I'm really tired right now, so if there's any mistakes or typos etc, please do inform me of them! Thank you.

**Chapter fifteen: Drastic Methods**

The dark, sleek car swerved neatly into the empty space as a bright, luminous light enveloped the car and its insides with an incandescent brightness.

Heero squinted and shielded his eyes with strong, muscular hands, before turning to look at the others, all squeezed neatly into the small, flashy sports car.

"Is this it?" Relena asked, doubtfully, her cerulean blues scanning the building not twenty feet away with them, with a bleak distaste.

"Yes," answered an excited Spanish voice, "I'm afraid it was the best that I could do, strangely there's not many in this area, but it seems okay. Where _are_ the others?"

As if on cue, a shiny Mercedes spun into the space beside theirs, mimicking their movements before staring unsurely towards the building in front, as Relena had done seconds ago.

Nikki pushed her door open, stepping heeled feet onto the ground beneath them and clambering gracefully out of the car.

Relena groaned as the other occupants of the car went to follow. She had awoken that night, in the comfort of the cosy hotel beds, to find Nikki tugging relentlessly at her arm and trying to wake her from her drowsy unconsciousness.

"_Come, Relena, we have to leave soon; Everybody shall be meeting in the reception hall in an hour," she had explained as she made her way over to the door, before turning back and adding, "Don't be late or we shall leave without you."_

"_Wait," Relena had shouted after her, still slightly lethargic from her haunted sleep, "Where are we going?"_

_Nikki had smiled prettily, flashing Relena her beautifully white and perfectly even teeth. Most likely the works of a professional orthodontist, "We're going out, remember that surprise I told you about in the hospital? Oh, and don't forget to look good."_

And that's how she found herself here, clad in her best 'nightlife' clothes and stepping three-inched heels onto the sturdy ground below, listening to them click as they collided with the tarmac and pulling herself out of the car.

The music emerging from the dimly lit building was loud and heavy; she could feel the vibrations through the ground, rock through her small body and hammer in her chest.

"Where's Nikki?" Hilde asked Heero casually. Relena silently wondered how her friend could be so casual around a guy like him; every time that their proximities enclosed, she would end up doing something weird, or just plain acting weird. Maybe the marriage to Duo Maxwell had made her immune to Heero's overall good looks and hotness.

Relena gasped aloud, shocked at her own thoughts, and shaking her head, roughly, she tried to remove the thoughts, 'bad Lena, bad Lena, bad Lena…'

"Lena?" Hilde asked, grabbing her shoulder in an attempt to stop her from shaking her head, "What's wrong?"

Relena froze before slowly glancing up at her friend, "Oh uh … nothing," she murmured.

Heero cast a dubious glance in her direction before rolling his eyes, "Nikki's just gone inside to check the place out, she'll be back in a second."

Right as he said this, Nikki stepped out of the building's side doors, her tight fitting, black dress restricting her movements and balancing easily on large, pin heels.

"Let's go," she said, beckoning them closer.

Heero followed her orders and stepped up to her, gracefully taking her arm in his and stepping into the building. Relena absently frowned, shooting the pair dark looks from behind.

"Shouldn't there be bouncers or something? Or you know … an entrance fee, even an ID check?" Relena asked quietly, withholding her bitterness from her voice and nudging her best friend.

"Ouch," Hilde moaned, "Lady with a baby here! Be careful, you moron," she added with a humorous laugh before grabbing Relena and trailing her over to the side doors.

They all walked into the building and Relena's question was quickly answered as a large, strong hand pressed against her, halting her from entering and restraining her from her group.

"Hold it there missy," Relena turned curious blue eyes, at the strongly built, shaved-head man who was capably restricting her movements, to stare with raised eyebrows.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"I'll need to see some form of ID." The tall man answered sternly with a dubious glance over her body.

Relena gaped at him, shocked, her jaw dangling loosely as her cerulean blues squinted accusingly, "But I'm twenty years old!" She protested, heatedly.

"Well, I'll need to see some proof of that then, 'cause you don't look a day older than seventeen," the man sneered at her, as the lights from behind him shone a glistening halo upon his shiny head.

Annoyed and horrified, Relena shot her hand into her bag, fishing rapidly for her passport before catching it and thrusting it into the bouncer's hands.

"There. Is that proof enough?"

The man scrutinised the ID carefully and rolled his eyes before throwing the card back to her, grunting his approval and casually stepping to the side. No apology.

Sighing deeply in her state of annoyance, she stepped into the main hall, casting angry eyes across the area for her friends.

"Bravo, that was a good show …" Duo appeared beside her, a gloating, mischievous look on his face as he threw her a roguish grin.

"Thanks for jumping to my defence," she mumbled, dolefully.

Duo laughed, clearly humoured by her behaviour, "Nah, you were doing fine. Had he got a little nasty … I would have jumped to your rescue! Being that gallant superhero of the universe, that I am," Duo grinned happily before Hilde came striding over, looking beautifully extravagant in her dark violet outfit. Duo slid his arm casually around his wife's waist and kissed her contentedly on the forehead.

Relena smiled at her friends. They were so deeply in love that it sometimes scared her, and maybe brought out a little bit of resentment , but that was before she realised _who_ they were. They were her best friends, and out of everybody that she knew, these two deserved to be so blissfully in love.

She stepped fully into the Club Lexico, the powerful stench of alcohol pounding her with full impact as she inhaled deeply. Neon lights flashed vibrantly from separate corners of the room, casting shimmering, dancing bodies into a glow of lustful radiance. The beat of the music crashed loudly against her own body, each crash sending extreme vibrations down her spine, and strangely giving her an urge to join the throng of sweating bodies before her, in their passionate dancing.

Wufei's face suddenly flashed into view as the strobe light blazed into action, rendering her vision into slow, sporadic movements. She wavered on the spot, unsure of exactly what was going on around her, and closed her eyes in an attempt to seize control of her body.

"Are you okay?" His strong, confidently masculine voice asked her, somehow making it's way to her through the heavy hammer of the music, and reaching her throbbing eardrums.

Relena nodded her head slowly, or at least, she thought that it would look slow to him, via the power of the strobe light.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she assured him, grasping firmly onto his rigid shoulders to steady her balance.

Wufei's hands hooked around her waist and pulled her body closer to his, as Relena's eyes jolted open in surprise.

"May I have this dance?" He asked casually, the slightest smirk crawling – slowly – onto his chiselled, Asian face.

Relena smiled comfortably. It had been a long time since she had spent valuable time with her Chinese friend, and she missed his somewhat indifferent yet teasing attitude that she had once taken for granted.

"Of course," she answered as he pulled her onto the dance floor, the crowds strangely parting as they passed and made their way onto the centre floor.

Their bodies moved systematically to the steady rhythm of the music, as cerulean blues locked daringly with dark onyx, in a feat of challenge and invited competition. She felt her body swaying, her mind rushing and her vision blurring as the dance continued and the heat blazed between them as perspiration leaked languidly from open pores.

Tearing her gaze away from his, she admitted defeat to the intense staring match and instead let her body take the rest of the opposition, while her eyes roamed the floors for familiar faces.

Suddenly her gaze fastened onto a pair of dark eyes, tossed into darkness by thick, unruly strands of dark hair. The intensity of them was cutting, as their sharpness cut into her soul, rendering her body involuntarily immobile.

The owner of the dark, piercing eyes smirked knowingly as he tugged his gaze away from her and back to the girl that was currently entangled with him. He overtly, cast lustfully passionate eyes down a thin, slender and tanned body, which glistening lightly with a delicate layer of sweat as it moved closely with his own strong, enticingly alluring body.

They moved slowly under the strobe, each movement capturing her eyes and oddly, her heart in a twisted and painful grasp.

He was teasing, taunting, but most of all, he was flaunting what he had, and what she didn't.

Their bodies became one in their dance as they mirrored each other's movements, often gaining jealous looks from others as they stole the attention on the dance floor.

"Are you okay?" Wufei peered down at her, concernedly as he tore her mind away from the young couple.

"Yeah," she answered softly, not caring if her voice didn't make it to his ears.

"May I cut in?" Relena spun around quickly, to find Sally standing next to her, staring directly at Wufei, her gaze fervent and strong.

With one more furtive look in Heero's direction, she stepped away from Wufei, "Yeah, I'm sorry, I need a drink anyway."

Sally smiled at her, apologetically before she walked away, gradually making her way towards the bar and lifting herself upon one of the metal stools that sat affront the bar table.

"What'll it be, honey?" A dark man asked as he swept his afro-like locks our of his eyes with a strong, sturdy hand. He flashed her a charming grin of brilliant white teeth, and Relena found herself falling for his beguilement and smiling back.

"Umm, anything," she threw her head back, tossing her blonde tresses in the process and threw a dark look at Heero, "… strong."

The bartender threw her a somewhat curious look before nodding, doubtfully.

'Great, even he doesn't think I'm aged.' Relena silently complained as she twirled in her chair, staring blankly at the multitudes of people on the dance floor, an idyllic heat radiating from them as they moved rhythmically, bodies colliding and twisting stylishly with their own unique identity.

"Here you go lady," The glass was slid into her hand gently and Relena stared down at the liquid substance cautiously, before shaking her head and throwing it all to the back of her throat. It burned, harshly as it trailed down her throat, and Relena shook her head more fervently, grimacing at the foul taste.

"Uhh, Relena, aren't you meant to like, take that in shots if you're going to down in one?" Dorothy slid, slyly onto the chair beside her, smiling slightly as she ordered her own drink from the bar.

"A light beer, please."

Relena released a shuddering breath as she turned to the platinum blonde girl beside her, "Hey, Dorothy. Where's Quatre?"

Dorothy shrugged, "I left him out there somewhere-"

"Talking about me, ladies?" The handsome blonde wrapped strong arms around his wife's waist, pulling her body close to his and kissing her passionately before letting go. Quatre cast Relena a giddy smile whilst Dorothy frowned at her husband.

"How's Trowa?" Relena breathed out, asking the question that she had been dying to ask all night; he had said that he'd see her later, hadn't he? But then again, how could he have known about Nikki's surprise trip to 'Club Lexico'? "Umm, can I have another please?" Relena called to the bartender, who nodded casually in return, suddenly at ease in seeing that she had company.

Quatre frowned, "He's with Cathy, Noin and Milliardo at the hospital. They'll be transporting him back to the hotel tonight, as they're leaving tonight anyway and couldn't afford to make it here."

Relena nodded as she felt the cool glass, once again pressed into her hands, she downed it in one again before ordering another and turning slightly unfocused eyes back to the crowds.

She spotted Duo and Hilde, dancing ardently, their eyes containing their blazoned love for each other and their bodies reflecting their emotions as they twisted casually together, barely making it apart before thrusting back together, by an unknown force … love maybe?

Further back and into the dark, she spotted Heero again, who winked seductively at her before pulling Nikki into full darkness.

Relena grimaced before downing her next glass and pushing herself off the seat and making her way to the stairway.

"Where are you going?" Quatre called after her, unease clearly burdened in his voice, but she ignored him in her rash state of mind, darting unsteadily upwards, taking two stairs at a time.

Eventually, she came to a halt as a blurred sign met her, and staggering sideways, she collided with something hard.

Strong hands grasped around her tiny waist, steadying her movements and balancing her against a strong, muscular body. Spinning around, Relena came face-to-face with the dark Prussian blue eyes that she had been trying to escape and sighed deeply, whilst shoving - with all of the strength that she could muster - the firm chest away from her.

"Heero, get away from me," she managed to choke out as she pulled away and glared at him.

Heero frowned confusedly before grinning, "I think that you may have had a little too much to drink."

"What's it to you?" Relena retorted, noting that her usual good grammatical sense had been washed away with the alcohol.

"Hn," Heero gave her a stony look which quickly turned into a sardonic smile, "Nothing."

Relena scowled and shoved him further away from her, "Stop screwing with me, your little supermodel girlfriend's around here somewhere … go screw her instead."

Heero gave her a bored looking glare and it registered in her mind, that he too, wasn't all that sober at that moment.

Suddenly, a darkly amused smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he stared at her, his grin slightly crooked, "What brings you up here, Relena?" he asked, ignoring her comment.

If she wasn't imagining it, his voice purred slightly, in darkly lustful way. Her eyes widened before she quickly regained her composure and shot him a cool glare.

Raising her eyebrows she replied, "Actually, I was looking for the toilets," she clamped her hands firmly to her waist, in annoyance, "Why are you here?" She asked hotly, feeling somewhat truculent.

Heero leaned in closer and Relena felt her stomach twist into knots and her heart pace increase dramatically at the sudden proximity. His ragged breath scorched hotly against her cheek as he replied, "I think," Relena suppressed a heavy sigh that was building within her, as his body pinned hers to the wall behind her, his hand coming to rest on the spot above her head as he stared at her, from behind heavily lidded, enticingly attractive eyes.

"That we are being followed," her heart froze altogether, and she tried to glance rapidly around her, however, Heero's muscular hand had cupped her chin in his iron-tight hold, impeding her from rash movements. "Improvisation, Relena," he smirked slightly, his whole body framing hers closely against the wall as he swooped towards her, and pressed his lips firmly to hers, with a somewhat attack of an emotion similar to passion.

His lips moved like clockwork against hers, and although she knew she would regret it later, Relena released a stifled moan as he deepened the kiss, his last words racing through her mind.

'- Improvisation, Relena, Improvisation, Relena … improvisation … -' this was all an act, she silently cursed herself for believing that he would voluntarily kiss her. 'But it's so … real,' her mind protested, but having had enough, Relena ran her hands along his chest before maintaining a steady hold and then suddenly pushing away.

----------------------------------

He didn't understand what was happening to him, it was meant to be an act, an improvisation, to ward off the unwanted people stalking them… it wasn't real. So ,why was he still kissing her?

'- She's addictive -' his mind answered for him.

He shook the thought from his head, trying to tear away from the young girl before him, but to his avail, she beat him to it; shoving swiftly, in rapid movements, so that in his momentary shock, he was able to stumble back a few paces.

She had just caught him by surprise, something he found that people rarely ever were capable of doing.

Something tugged within him, pulling an overwhelming feeling of regret over his body, but he promptly shook it off.

He stared at her, blankly, before shaking his head and adding, "They're gone," and disappearing quickly down the stairs. He needed to get away from her. She was intoxicating, and for the first time in his life, he found that he wasn't able to withhold his emotions.

----------------------------------

Relena stared after him in shock, her heart still throbbing madly in her chest as she lowered herself to the ground, trying to recollect what had just happened. Were they really being followed?

Of course they were … why, would Heero do that, for nothing?

She sighed and purposely bashed her head against the brick wall behind her, closing her eyes in a useless attempt to drown out the thrashing music from below.

Her body shook from the tremors sent through the floor, and she pressed her head deeply into her hands, massaging her temples with long fingers, which struggled to relieve some of the agonizing pain that was bouncing through her head with each steady beat.

Drowsiness overtook her body, as she slunk against the floor, her eyes closing slowly and her mind rolling over her confused thoughts in a dream-like state.

----------------------------------

In his haste, Heero managed to dash straight into his blonde haired, Arabian friend, who was standing outside, clutching his cell phone with a tight grasp, which caused his knuckles to turn white.

Quatre stared up at him with confused, stunned aquamarine eyes, his breath was ragged and infrequent and he looked to some extent, paler than usual.

"I just got a call," the usually calm man rasped out from choked breaths, "They've raided the hotel." He leaned his back sturdily against the outside wall of the building for support, "There are no survivors."

Heero stared back at the man before him, his eyebrows darting down in confusion whilst his mind worked rapidly for a suitable explanation to his sentence.

They had found them once again… They were tracing them… but who were they after?

'I think … that we're being followed,' His earlier words rang loudly in his head and he slammed his palm against his forehead, in frustration. A sudden soberness overpowered both his mind and body, with the revelation, as he turned quickly to Quatre.

"Get everybody together; we need to get them out of here quickly."

"What-" Quatre started, but Heero cut him off by answering the question in his mind.

"They're here too," He slammed his fist against the brickwork, unperturbed by the now throbbing pain that was tracing its way down his wrist, "Dammit, I should have noticed it earlier … Just get everyone out, _now_."

Quatre needed no further encouragement, for he was gone within the blink of an eye, Heero tailing in after him and receiving curious looks from the large bouncer placed at the door. Heero silenced the man with a piercing glare, and slipped into the club, greeted suddenly with the brashness of the beats and the heat emanating from the heated bodies.

----------------------------------

"Heero … what is going on?" Nikki demanded as she was shoved into the car, after Heero had hauled Relena's small form into the backseat. "And why is _she_ unconscious?"

"I don't know, too much to drink?" he offered as he slammed the car door shut, the noise echoing in his ears for a few moments.

A rapping at his window alerted him that Duo wanted his attention, and he reluctantly ran his finger across the dashboard, pressing a single button and watching the window automatically roll down.

Duo's face was completely serious as he knelt down beside the car, "Hey," he greeted calmly, "You want me to drive? I haven't had anything to drink, neither has Quatre, but I've heard that _you _have."

Heero sighed, knowing that he'd been way over the limit, and opening his door again, he grudgingly stepped out and thrust the keys into Duo's hand.

"Be careful," he said as he grasped Duo's wrist sturdily.

"Don't worry;" Duo guaranteed, "I'll be careful with your precious car."

Heero frowned, his eyebrows furrowing down deeply, "No, that's not what I'm concerned about," he cast surreptitious glances at his girlfriend and Relena, before turning back to his American friend, "I mean it, Duo."

Duo nodded, knowingly.

* * *

'Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.' -- Anais Nin. 

A/N – Eventually, huh? I know, I've been totally burdened with lots of tiresome things, like school, homework, and then I was sick for a while there. Thankfully, I'm on a full recovery now – but I can't say the same for the people at the hotel lol.

I know excuses are not good enough, but I updated, didn't I? Well I'm proud of myself anyways, and don't worry the next chapter will be better, my writer's block is starting to wear off! Yippee!

Thank you for all the amazingly wonderful reviews. I would write some reviewer comments here, but as you might already know, has banned us writers from doing so. There is a petition going around at the minute, which I have signed, in hope that they will lift this ban, but whether or not they will, none of us know.

But I'd be highly grateful if you kept reviewing, I read them and I sincerely appreciate them! Love you guys sooooooooooo much!

REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!

Love yaz

Allura


	17. The truth behind the lies

**Between Love and Hate**

**Chapter sixteen: The Truth Behind the Lies**

"Shit, look at this goddamned mess."

A numb sensation swept over her body as she stepped through the automatic, glassy, double-doors; her eyes widened, dramatically, at the sight that was portrayed before her and she absently gasped, clasping a hand across her mouth in the process.

"How could they do something like this?"

A stale, heavy and repulsive stench of death, reached her nostrils and she choked on her breath at the intensity.

"How long have you been here?"

She felt so empty and devoid of feeling as her light blue eyes roamed across the room, taking in the barely recognizable faces of the people that she had only just met. She shuddered.

They hadn't deserved a fate like this. No one did.

"Not long," another voice joined the conversation, in the distance, "Zechs and Noin dropped us off, not too long ago, and as soon as we entered and found this; I contacted Quatre."

Not caring to find out who was talking, Relena sidestepped the guard's burly and unconscious corpse and made her way round to the side of the room.

The receptionist lay in front of her desk, her body twisted in a way that Relena imagined to be extremely painful and a pool of dark blood spilling, carelessly, around her head from open wounds. Relena's stomach jerked, violently, as she observed the linear slice across the taught flesh of the girl's neck, maliciously tearing across her jugular; a smear of blood darkened her forehead where it rested on the ground and Relena fought down the strong urge to retch up her previous meals.

A cold, cutting wind blew ferociously through the open doors and rustled the drapes, twisting and turning the fabric in an almost haunting way.

"Heero?" The Spanish tone of the girl's voice, cut straight through her thoughts, tugging her, with a jolt, back to reality.

"Go away, Nicola," was the only, impassive, reply. The room grew still, as the tension between the members of the living, grew even more intense.

The room spun, dizzily. She tried to drown it all out again, hoping to hide from the present catastrophe in the cold, numb world that seemed so much more inviting than the one she was trapped within now. It brought promises of easing her current pain, with a less emotional one of barrenness.

"But, honey-"

Her breaths were falling out of rhythm, coming now at irregular and infrequent intervals, yet at a fast, uncomfortable pace. Was this what they called hyperventilating?

"Nicola!" Heero's voice loudly rand out to her; it was devoid of emotion – like her – and back to its regular uncaring, unfeeling, emotionless drone. "Leave. Now!"

Sorrow suddenly ripped through her chest as her eyes fell upon a young boy, barely older than six, vibrant blonde curls hanging limply around a pallid face, which was so out of place amongst his other lively features. It was so sad, fearful, but most of all … lifeless, his bright, blue eyes, held tremendous terror as they stared up at her in shock. She swallowed, hard.

Wrenching her eyes away from the painfully powerful sight, Relena stared at the Spanish girl, with a hollow gaze. The girl was shook by Heero's sudden, rash anger, the expression was clearly painted upon her face and yet she was not attempting, at all, to hide the wounded appearance. Instead, she followed Heero's orders and ran from the room, swiftly.

The unbearable smell of blood was overpowering. It was jarring her senses and impeding her breaths. The excitement from earlier had been malevolently ripped from her chest, and the empty hollow feeling that now occupied that space was excruciating.

Closing her eyes, she realised that her mind was now burned with the anguished images, each body … each corpse was scarred so deeply into her memory that she knew she would have recurring nightmares for weeks to come.

The sudden contact, as a warm hand grasped, almost protectively, around her upper arm, snapped her from her reveries and Relena started, spinning around quickly to stare at the person who dared to intrude her thoughts.

"Come on," the masculine voice was reassuring; however it did nothing to ease her pain. Relena stared up into the comforting, dark pools of emerald and shook her head gently. "Relena, I'm serious. I have to get you out of here; this is just … _too much_."

"I can handle it," she choked out, causing Trowa to raise a questioning eyebrow.

"No," he stated, "You can't. Nobody can. Look at Heero, he's losing self-control, and for a robot like him, that's _definitely _something."

Relena eventually forced herself to glance at the brooding brunette, who was shaking his head, regretfully, as he studied the surroundings. She then cast a furtive glance at the three men behind him. Quatre was frantically throwing demands into his cell phone, whilst ruffling his hair, nervously. Duo and Wufei were in the far corner of the room, both looking extremely agitated and distressed; Duo's arms were thrown, obstinately, across his chest, as he argued heatedly with a stubborn Wufei.

Relena swallowed, before turning back to her tall bodyguard.

"Now let's get you out of here, the other girl's have already gone to their rooms."

Relena allowed Trowa's hand to slip under her arm, and let him guide her to her room. The journey there, although short, was tense and awkward; the friction between the pair, so dense, that Relena felt that she was being slowly suffocated.

As soon as they were outside her room, Relena stared, blandly at the three-digit number, carved elegantly into the thick, heavy wood. 'Two-oh-three' it reading gold, elegant script.

Unsure of whether she could handle any more of the awkwardness, and feeling as though she would rather be alone, Relena sent Trowa a short smile before sighing deeply.

"I think… I'd rather go in alone, if you don't mind."

Trowa returned her smile, a little more enthusiastically, with his own crooked one, as he studied her with powerful emerald orbs, causing her to shuffle uncomfortably under his watch.

"I understand," he replied with a curt nod, after a short while. He slipped his curved index finger under her chin, and as her head tilted skywards, Relena closed her eyes slowly.

His strong lips grazed against her forehead as he wrapped an arm around her waist. Relena, feeling, at once, comforted by his warmth and tenderness, slipped easily into his embrace, pressing her head firmly against his strong chest and breathing in deeply, relishing in the enticing scent of his cologne.

"Call me if you need me," He told her as he pulled away, "I'm just two doors down, that way," he gestured, with his strong hands, down the hall, and Relena nodded, understandingly.

A soon as he had disappeared, Relena crept quietly into her room, feeling the need to not disturb the serene silence that fell upon her at entrance.

---------------------------------

Heero, irritated by the thick, grating tension that filled the room, departed through the double doors. As he stood outside, reminiscing, he briefly remembered his attitude towards Nikki and grimaced, not sure of why he had acted that way towards her.

He cared about her. That was why he had sent her away; it had to be why. What other reasons were there?

He sighed. He shouldn't have been so harsh. His behaviour was, as Nicola would say, uncalled for. He had to stop acting so coldly towards others, he had to stop blocking everybody out in order to hide his own emotions. 'This,' he thought silently, 'was going to be his new year's resolution.'

A sudden movement in the far corner of his eye intruded his thoughts and caught his attention. Straining his ears, he listened carefully, taking in the light rustle of the trees with curious eyes, as something moved away from him.

Or some_one_.

He frowned, before looking back into the main entrance, the glassy doors depicting him the full view. The room was how he had left it; Quatre was pacing tensely up and down, through the room and Trowa was leaning against a back wall, looking as though he was listening intently to his best friend's frantic ramblings. Finally, Duo and Wufei, still captured in their animated argument, were at the back of the room; Duo flailing his arms around, irritated, as Wufei managed to remain cool and composed. He guessed that this was what was infuriating Duo so much.

Heero scowled slightly before spinning silently and dashing, stealthily, after their intruder, pushing his way, as quietly as he could, through the thick, dense plant life that surrounded the building.

At last, it looked as though he was going to be given _his_ chance, for revenge.

---------------------------------

Relena lay on her bed, amidst the darkness, trying to sleep away the events of the day. She stirred and shifted, eventually ending up on her back, staring into the pitch of black above her. For some strange, unknown reason, she had a sudden urge to turn on a light, a lamp, anything that would shed light into the world of darkness around her.

Releasing a sigh, she shifted slightly again, before becoming still.

That's when she felt someone's presence in the room. Blinking against the darkness, she tried to gain focus, but the darkness was suffocating her… blinding her, and whoever was in the room was concealed in the abyss before her.

Breathing deeply and more irrationally, she suddenly pushed the covers off her body and switched on the lamp beside her. As the light spread throughout the small corner of the room, Relena realized that she was, in fact, very much alone.

Lying back down again, she clung to the covers with damp palms and closed her eyes, trying to shake off the feeling of being watched.

The trees outside her room rustled, their twigs and branches scratching eerily against the window pane and the wind howled gently as it tried to gain entrance to the room.

She shuddered, and after a while, finally realized that she wasn't going to sleep.

Sighing, Relena draped her long legs off the edge of the bed, and dressed quickly. She left her room after locking it and swiftly made her way to the back of the hall, where she had earlier spotted a fire escape.

Reaching the heavy door, she pushed on the bar, allowing the door to glide freely open on its hinges.

The wind caught her breath as she stepped out into the open. The dull lighting, emerging from the open moon above and the infrequent lights from other rooms, only partly lessened the blackness of the night.

Her feet were cold against the harsh wind and the cold metal, spiral staircase, which wound to the ground, granting her easy departure, as she stepped out. The metal creaked, unceremoniously underneath her weight, and Relena unknowingly held her breath as she made her way down, until her feet brushed with the light soil as she reached the ground level.

She heard the rustling first and then guiding her eyes towards the point of her attention, she saw it. The tremble of the leaves as they swayed, pushed by a much stronger force than the wind.

Diverting her eyes to the ground, she then noticed the strange yet familiar shape; there were footprints scarring the ground and directed into the forest. Relena breathed heavily, at the angle that the prints of the shoe had been imprinted into the soil, Relena realized that the offender must have been sprinting. Most likely to escape.

Without much thought, Relena torpidly moved towards the dense trees of the forest, and pushing a few branches out of her way, she picked up her pace, following the intruder.

---------------------------------

The radio was blaring loudly in her ears, its volume almost deafening and vibrating greatly against her eardrums, and yet, she couldn't hear it.

Her foot was hard-pressed onto the accelerator as she dared herself to go faster. She could feel her leg trembling with her tensed nerves, but still, her foot remained wedged on the pedal and the car unceasingly gained speed.

Salty tears stung her reddened eyes before overflowing the rims and rapidly coursing down her tanned, chiselled face.

She meandered around a corner, her hands twitching as they thrust the steering wheel to the left, causing the wheels to twist into the desirable direction. Reaching up with one hand to wipe at her damp eyes, she tried to remain focused on the road. The dark foliage at the sides, blurred hazily past her eyes, due to her immense velocity. However, she didn't care.

The moon ahead, vibrant amidst the vast black sky above, cast rippled, glowing rays onto the raucous sea below as wrathful waves crashed against the jagged rocks.

She needed to feel. She needed to feel the increasing excitement, which suppressed her thoughts and the intense exhilaration that plagued her mind, body and soul. Her heart was torn … broken, pumping obstinately in her chest. Each beat falling into an even more irregular pattern than the last. Her blood was chilled with fear, anxiety and apprehension. She didn't care.

The tears became fiercely frequent as her eyes captured the shadowy view in front of her. Her vision was obscured and hazy; impaired by her heart-rending emotions. The bright light shining from her headlights and onto the paved roads was scattered and futile to her rendered worthless eyesight. She was entirely numb. She was blocking out the pain in her body, and instead, she was left with a hollow emptiness, which consumed her body with a turgid restraint.

The car shook, threateningly, as it gunned another brusque bend, taking a hard left swerve. She swallowed. Her speed was_ too_ alarming, perilous … dangerous, it was mounting to the stage where she was nearly completely out of control. And she _knew_ that she neededto slow down.

She raised a wavering foot from the accelerator, yet as she lifted it, the pedal remained fixed, unmoving from its position. Panic rose steadily within, no longer capable of drowning her emotions they rapidly flooded back to her, filling her with grief, clutching her chest tightly and painfully constricting her heart with a callous grasp.

Kicking the pedal, she clutched the steering wheel rigidly with white knuckles, and pleaded with the accelerator to move, yet still, it never bounced back up. She slammed her foot down, hard, on the brakes but her action remained useless, rendered by the fixed accelerator.

There was really nothing that she could do. She was out of control. Completely.

Her headlights flickered on and off before pulsing to a dim glow that was completely of no use to her. The bonnet of the car collided fiercely into something on the road, undoubtedly the edge of a higher cliff, and the car swerved closer to the edge, causing a startled shriek to be maliciously ripped from her throat.

She was blind. She could see nothing but the moon ahead, blinking through the dark clouds in an almost taunting way. Her terror was heightened and the car grew chillingly cold, the bitterness wrapping around her body with a pitiless embrace. She shuddered.

Continuously kicking at the acceleration pedal, she willed it to release, but after noticing that her actions were utterly ineffective, she slammed her foot against the breaks.

She was so focused on her attempts that she hadn't noticed the bright light, flickering on and off, from the front of her car. Casting nervous eyes out of the steamed window shield, she finally saw. Her headlights were beaming brightly, throwing the black road into a pool of light. However, what she saw triggered the wild pummelling in her chest as her heart hammered against her ribcage and her feral, frantic breaths as they raced rapidly from her mouth.

Attempting, hopelessly, to control the vehicle, she veered to the side, whilst aghast sobs escaped her frail lips.

The car took the corner at a dangerous yet miraculous speed, nevertheless as it turned, what lay ahead was no more pleasant.

Heero's face swayed before her as she drove her foot relentlessly and adamantly against the brakes. Her body was shaking violently as she recalled memories from the back of her mind.

_---_

"_See…" She told him in between kisses, "What you would be missing, if I wasn't here." Heero pulled away from her, diving under the water, he grabbed her legs, and hearing her incoherent squeal he pushed her up onto the edge of the pool._

"_Yes, a whole lot," He jumped up beside her, "and all of this." He added whilst kissing her lightly on the lips._

_---_

"_I love you, Heero…" She pushed herself up to his body, running thin hands down his shirt, vigorously, as she awaited his reply._

_Heero bowed down, capturing her lips in a passionate kiss before pulling away and smiling, ever so slightly, his breaths hot against her cheeks as he breathed deeply, "You know exactly how I feel about you." She smiled._

_---_

She didn't actually. Know, that is. He had never, once, told her how he felt; she had loved him, and she had thought that he loved her back. However, his actions as of lately were telling her different.

The angry screech of the silver BMW, as it swerved in the night, startled her from her thoughts and she quickly smeared the hot tears off her face. She was getting what she wanted… finally. Exhilaration. A tearing, cutting, fearful exhilaration, as the car hit the edge of the cliff.

She couldn't hinder the inevitable. That was an impossible feat. She couldn't prevent Heero from stealing her heart, she couldn't make him love her back and she couldn't impede the finality that lay just seconds ahead of her.

Her limbs trembled, her skin crawled and the car flew through thin air, gliding aimlessly to its downfall.

Nicola de Rivera inhaled profoundly as the car bent forward, tipping and portraying to her, her concluding fate.

The silver glinted beautifully, beneath the moon's glowing, iridescent rays, as it moved, silently, through the black night at a threateningly fatal speed. Nikki released her breath with a last piercing scream, which tore through the dark lands around her, as she fell to the murky, rocky waters below. To her death.

---------------------------------

It was pitch black. The only light from the moon was obscured by the thickness of the towering trees above, and the darkness was shrouding. Heero leapt agilely over the rustling bushes, his ears pricked with anticipation and listening carefully for the footsteps that he had been following for the past five minutes.

Silence.

'Damn.' He came to a stop, his hands falling to his knees as he bent over to catch his breath. How had he lost them? It wasn't possible. Not for him anyway.

He knew, by searching his surroundings that he was deep into the forest. The trees around him were dense and thick as he cast cautious eyes, scanning the area for signs … anything.

In milliseconds, Heero was up again, hunting the grounds, with sharp, incisive eyes, resembling a wolf pursuing his prey.

---------------------------------

The soil was cold and moist beneath her, as bare feet padded quickly along the ground, chasing, following and seeking.

The cool air was whipping her soft blonde locks across her face as she ran and her breaths were quickly falling out of pace as she gasped for air.

She pushed her speed, needing to catch up, and impelled her legs to move faster, but under the pressure and strain, they quickly buckled and Relena tumbled to her knees onto the muddy earth below. Her hands quickly tapered her fall, as she landed, under a shimmering patch of ghostly pale moonlight, bathing down on her, amidst the darkness of the forest, like a spotlight.

The natural silence enveloping her was suddenly interrupted as the careless crunch of heavy boots treaded across the leaf littered floors.

"Relena?"

She froze. Her body stiffened. Her blood chilling in her veins as the icy tone of the masculine voice swept a cold numbing sensation over her tensed body.

_No_, this was not happening. Not now.

Terror stricken eyes swept up, shakily, to stare at the daring blonde directly in front of her, as steely orbs glared at her in a mist of confusion and alarm.

"Matthew?" Relena choked, hoarsely, her fear grasping her larynx, impelling her voice; compressing her lungs, impeding her breaths and strangling her heart as it hammered heavily in her chest.

Then with a wave of horror, she had one final thought. 'He was back.'

* * *

'_Fear is an emotion indispensable for survival_._' – Hannah Arendt._

**AN** – Hey guys. Thanks for all the reviews. Not all the love in my world could describe how much that they mean to me. So yeah ... I'm back. I'm sooo sorry. This was meant to be up earlier, but then i came home from school, planning to post this and logged onto the computer to find that my internet had been cut off 'cause my dad wanted to change servers. So yeah. Sorry. Hope this chapter made up for the wait. If not ... well, i'll try harder.

**Love yaz**

**Allura **


	18. Growth of a Cancerous Delirium

**Between Love and Hate**

**In the Previous Chapter:**

"_Relena?"_

_She froze. Her body stiffened. Her blood chilling in her veins as the icy tone of the masculine voice swept a cold numbing sensation over her tensed body._

_No, this was not happening. Not now. _

_Terror stricken eyes swept up, shakily, to stare at the daring blonde directly in front of her, as steely orbs glared at her in a mist of confusion and alarm._

"_Matthew?" Relena choked, hoarsely, her fear grasping her larynx, impelling her voice; compressing her lungs, impeding her breaths and strangling her heart as it hammered heavily in her chest._

_Then, with a wave of horror, she had one final thought. 'He was back.'_

-

**Chapter seventeen: Growth of a Cancerous Delirium**

"That's _bull_, man, and you know it!" Duo cried, jumping swiftly to his feet and storming across the room. Wufei stared impassively after him, onyx eyes focused carefully on the braided man's back.

Half way through his march, Duo spun around on his heel, glaring at Wufei with stiff, cold eyes. "We can't stay here, I won't allow it," he breathed quietly, before exiting the room, the glass doors swinging shut behind him with a raucous crash as the pane shattered and shards of glittering glass scattered to the tiled floors beneath.

Wufei exhaled deeply, releasing a stale breath of air that he hadn't been aware that he was holding. As he inhaled again, the repulsive stench of blood and death that repugnantly filled his lungs reminded him of his current situation and he glanced around the room, his dark eyes scanning swiftly across and taking in the masses of lifeless, pale bodies. Massacre. That's what this was. His stomach clenched tightly and he felt bile stir unnaturally, threatening to rise to his throat, but he pushed it down and walked slowly towards Trowa, his feet tapping resoundingly against the cold, gleaming tiles as he moved.

"He's right you know," Trowa mused as Wufei fell to a standstill beside him, "we can't stay here. It's reckless, we'll be leading everybody straight into jeopardy and seeing as we're basically unarmed, we'll be sitting targets the next time they decide to pay us a visit." He slumped against the wall, his green eyes dropping to study the floor and his long strands of his cinnamon hair falling to hide them from view.

"Stop being so pessimistic," Wufei growled, but without his usual adamant tone, "We still have a chance of fighting this off before something else like this happens."

"Wufei!" Trowa's head shot up and Wufei was mildly surprised to see a burning fire in those emerald green eyes, as anger adorned the usually emotionless man's face, "Stop being so naïve! Can't you see? Can't you see what they're capable of? This is just the beginning; they're testing us, showing us what they are truly capable of, and the fact that they have left not one survivor in this building, provides us with the hindsight that they can do much more than this." He shook his head, irately, "This battle has only begun … and yet, too many lives have already been lost. Do you _really_ want to endanger any more?"

Wufei stared at him, with hard eyes, a thread of admiration growing for the taller man. It took a lot of courage to put your foot down in a situation like this; it took a lot of valour to flee, to disown the fact that only cowards fled, and yet, Wufei wasn't ready to discard his pride, after all, it seemed to be the only thing that he had left.

"Are _you_ so naïve?" He knew that he was only going to reiterate the argument that had taken place minutes before with Duo, but he was adamant that they saw his point of view. It too had a chance of survival, and was so much more commendable than fleeing. "Do you really think that they won't find us again? They have found us, not only once, but twice, and I am positive that they will continue to seek us from our positions wherever we hide." He clenched his jaw tightly, his composure wearing off rapidly, "Why play games, Barton, when we can just cut right to the chase and eliminate them from this spot?"

Trowa grimaced. "This can't be about pride anymore. This is about life or death."

----------------------------------

The sirens hailed through the silence of the dark, early morning, as the police car streaked through the deserted dirt roads, often hitting loose stones and jerking to the side. Rock-strewn muck flew up, as the tires of the Rover spun against the ground, and splattered against the windows and sides of the car as the road thinned hazardously.

It was a dangerous area. Everybody knew this.

Sergeant James Patterson sat in the passenger seat, one hand clutching onto the dashboard with white knuckles, and his other grasped tightly around a steamy travel mug of hot coffee.

"Christ, Carson, can't you take these bends a little slower?" He cried as the car hit another sharp curve, and jolted to one side, narrowly missing the cliff, which gave way to the jagged rocks and crashing, sea below.

"Sorry, Serge, the Rover's not taking these mountainous conditions very easily." Officer Carson answered, nervously.

"Well, be careful; one wrong move and we'll be plummeting down to join the fish in an underwater dive."

Carson swallowed uneasily, not even chancing a glance at the violent sea.

As they neared their point of destination, Carson carefully decreased his speed, staring apprehensively at the cloud of red and blue flashing lights ahead. Ambulances and police cars herded around the area closely, and men clustered attentively near the edge of the cliff, some gazing down, wearily, and others gathering equipment from vehicles with a rapid speed. A stream of yellow police tape, stating 'DO NOT ENTER – POLICE' ran thoroughly around the area, whipping back and forth with the vicious force of the wind.

Patterson sighed deeply before turning to his accomplice with tired eyes, "What do you know so far?"

Carson shifted uncomfortably. "Local resident phoned into the station at approximately two-forty-five am and reported an accident around Herron point. She had awoken to the sound of a loud crash registering in the near distance and her and her husband dressed and made their way down here to investigate. That's all they told me before I was sent to collect you, sergeant."

Patterson swigged a heavy gulp of his coffee and nodded his head thoughtfully. "A silver BMW has been found at the scene, only one body has been reported so far, but has yet to be recovered. Got that?"

Carson nodded solemnly. He hated working on cases like this, after all, he was only a novice, and for some reason he always found himself becoming personally affected by what was happening.

"Okay, follow me." Patterson stepped out of the car and walked briskly towards the group of officers gathered at the scene, tugging his jacket closer to his body as he moved against the chilling breeze.

"Sergeant." An alert officer greeted him with a curt nod before beckoning him over to the side, Patterson turned towards Carson, gesturing for him to pursue. The officer led them both to the edge of the cliff, where he stopped suddenly, fumbling with a notepad and flicking leaves of paper over until he found the correct one. Patterson leant forward, eyeing the ledge warily before diverting his eyes to the disconcerting view below. Even in the darkness, he could make out the outline of several men, treading carefully along the banks and around the smoky rubble of what Patterson assumed to be the BMW.

"Pretty shocking, huh?" the officer asked, recognizing Patterson's concern. "There's a body. They've been able to haul it out of the wreckage. It's over there," He jerked his head to the side, where Patterson saw a group of paramedics, huddled together and working hastily with something on the ground.

Carson listened conscientiously, noticing how the officer described the body as 'it'. Classification had it that bodies were depicted as 'it' and not by their previous sexes. In his point of view, it was inhumane and completely impersonal. But maybe that was where his problem lay.

"No luck?" Patterson asked, although, by the tone of his voice, it was clear that he already knew the answer.

"No. She's dead."

They walked over to where the forensics had assembled, and Patterson dropped to squat on the ground.

Carson studied the body carefully, an overwhelming amount of remorse flooding through his own. The young girl's body was deformed beyond recognition, only a few distinguishable features remained to help the forensics determine who she was. Under the glowing rays of the moon, Carson described her as beautiful, but poetically so, for her death was nothing but another tragic loss to the world. One of the paramedics ran his hand over her dark, hauntingly lifeless eyes, closing them to the world around her, before another pulled a plastic cover over her slim, fragile body, and zipped her up.

Patterson stood up slowly, watching as the girl was slid into the back of an ambulance, ready to be handed over to the forensics.

"Have you any evidence of what happened?" He asked, turning back to the officer in charge, "An accident? Suicide?"

The officer shook his head sombrely, "No sir, we have strong reasons to believe that it was murder."

Carson blanched. He hadn't been prepared for that answer.

"Those being?"

"When the wreckage was examined carefully, we were able to find that the brakes had been disabled; the wires were cut and the pedal disjointed."

Who would do this? Carson asked repeatedly in his mind, envisioning the misshapen body of the young girl who had been brutally murdered.

"Definitely not accidental?"

"The edges of the cables were blunt, informing us that they must have been sheared."

Patterson inhaled deeply, running a shaky hand through his dark, greying hair. "Have you found any identification, whatsoever?"

"No sir. No identification of the car, but Ronny's in the van right at this minute, running a search on the registration number."

"Good, would he have anything by now?" Patterson asked.

The officer nodded his head, "Let us see."

They approached a small research vehicle, and stepping inside, Patterson found a small corpulent man, his fingers drumming heavily on the keyboard as cryptic script ran swiftly across the screen.

"The sergeant would like to know if you have anything yet, Ronny." The officer stated, before slipping, silently back out of the van.

Ronny turned his balding head to look up at the sergeant, towering above him, "Yes sir. The results on the license plate Y-U-Y-six-seven-F-eight, have been successful."

"Go on then;" Patterson prompted.

"The owner of the car is one by the name of Heero Yuy, sir. His location is currently unknown though; the database seems to have some kind of block on it. There's a message from the Preventers, saying that the information is strictly confidential."

"Dammit." Patterson growled, "Get in touch with these 'Preventers' and tell them our situation. I need to find Mr Yuy as soon as possible." He inhaled deeply before continuing, "Also, I want an autopsy report of the girl. I want her identified as soon as possible, and for God's sake, Ronny, keep the damned press away for as long as possible."

He groaned as he left the van, Carson on his tail. This was going to be a hell of a long morning.

----------------------------------

Quatre sunk down onto the mattress beside his sleeping wife, threading his fingers through her silky, platinum blonde locks as he reminisced on the scene downstairs. He had finally resigned from of the view, excusing himself from Trowa, and slowly and tiredly making his way up to his large, comfortable suite. When he had reached his floor, he released a breath that he hadn't known he was holding, as an overwhelming fatigue consumed his whole body. Leaning against the side of the wall for a few seconds, he was soon startled by a livid Duo, raiding past him, muttering incoherent words under his breath.

Quatre had caught fragments of the young American's argument with Wufei, all of which rose a foreboding tension over the room.

Sighing, Quatre noted mentally to check on him later … but for now. He needed to sleep.

----------------------------------

The wind was howling portentously through the fissures in the trees and a cold breeze was slicing harshly across her body, biting at her barely covered skin with venomous icy teeth. However, this wasn't what caused the hairs on her arms to stand on edge, or the chilling shivers to trace spirals down her back. The cause of these stood only three metres away from her, staring curiously from the shadows.

She wanted to scream, to cry for help, to do anything to keep him away from her. However, her body wasn't functioning with her brain, and her voice refused to co-operate. She felt frozen amidst the swirling world before her, and all she could see … was _him_.

Fear gripped her soul as she stared at his tall, muscular form, the one that held so much control over her for too many years, and yet again, she found herself succumbing to its unyielding power. She felt unbelievably weak as she watched him, waiting for him to make his next move, like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.

Matthew took a few hesitant steps forward, and each time, as his foot hit the ground with a patronising thud, Relena felt the world she had been living in spin off its axis and her head thump painfully.

He casually knelt down in front of her, his face much too close to hers for her liking and as Relena studied him, she came to wonder how she had once been in love with this man.

With a gust of wind, Matthew's dark blonde hair swept across his handsome chiselled face as disconcerting grey eyes studied her, with a mixture of confusion, amusement and passion. Relena shuddered, hating the binding feeling that he possessed over her.

Clawing at the loose ground behind her, Relena attempted to space a larger distance between the two of them, but for some reason, under Matthew's penetrating stares, her efforts were deemed futile, and she remained frozen, under the beaming rays of the moon … petrified.

"_Darling _…" he drawled out slowly, "What are you doing here?"

Feeling a sudden surge of confidence, Relena bit back, "I was just about to ask you the same question," she growled, "weren't you meant to be on a business trip?"

Matthew looked amused. "But I am." He reached out carefully, his thumb grazing her cheek gently, "You shouldn't be here."

The burning sensation that scalded her skin from his touch caused her to jerk her head swiftly away from him. Matthew, however, didn't seem perturbed by her action in the slightest. Instead, he stood quietly, towering over her from his height.

"Neither should you." She murmured her voice softer than last time. Matthew ignored her comment, sighing deeply and looking bored.

"What are you doing here?" he repeated, and for just a second, Relena watched as his calm exteriors faded to allow a rapid flicker of anger contort his face.

However, before Relena had a chance to answer his question, a light brushing of shrubbery in the distance alerted them of another presence. Matthew's blonde head twisted rapidly to the left, his light eyes scouting for the unwanted visitor; after a few passing minutes of careful surveillance, he turned his attention back to Relena, an odd air of uneasiness surrounding him now, replacing his earlier tranquil exterior.

"We're not done here, _Relena_," He said, reaching out, "I'll be back. Count on it." He grazed his icy fingers against her lips before swiftly spinning around and disappearing, stealthily out of view.

Relena, still kneeling on the leaf littered floors beneath her, was frozen to the spot. She didn't know whether to follow or not, but even if she has tried to tail him, she would have no chance of tracking him, for he had disappeared far too quickly.

Her heart was still pumping with a fearful trepidation as she slumped to the ground, feeling – as she usually did after an encounter with Matthew – completely useless and worthless. He would be back for her. That's what he had promised, and there was absolutely nothing that she could do about it.

"Relena?" Startled, Relena jumped, emerged from her thoughts and scrambled hastily to her feet, "What are you doing here?" Heero stepped out of the shadows, his full muscular figure washed with the pale white rays of the gleaming moon. His eyes were radiant with an intense curiosity as he moved closer to her, somewhat uncertainly.

"… I uhh … umm …" She stammered, nervously, before cursing herself for being so pathetic. Heero frowned deeply, faint creases etching lines into the smooth skin on his forehead as his dark eyebrows furrowed down.

"Who was with you?" Relena gasped and stared at him, looking suddenly overwhelmed, Heero cleared his throat, roughly, before clarifying, "I heard voices."

"… Uh …" Relena sniffled lightly, pursing her lips together tightly in an attempt to stifle the sob rising in her throat. "I followed him out here," she started, "I didn't think he'd be here, but he was and I didn't know what to do; I know that I should have followed, but I wasn't thinking at the time and-" Her rambling was cut short as Heero's hand clasped around her upper arm, firmly, yet soothingly. She turned to look up at him, for once, seeing through his usually impermeable barrier and reading the guise of concern drawn across his face.

"Relena, it's okay. There's nothing we can do now, but if you can tell me what they looked like, maybe it'll give us a head start." His hand drew tighter around her arm and he moved steadily closer, as an overwhelming amount of heat flushed through Relena's body at the sudden proximity.

"Matthew," Relena breathed out in a choked whisper, "Matthew Connors." She was now aware of the lump that had suddenly surfaced at the back of her throat, and the dampness that was staining her cheeks with salty tears, and she was sure that Heero was too. "He is – was my boyfriend."

Heero nodded slowly, taking it all in, and looking as though he was storing the information somewhere in his head, for later reference. Their eyes locked, and in that brief moment, Relena caught a glimmer of hope, that passed through her body, with a slight shudder … a hope that everything would be all right in the end. However, this feeling partly shattered when Heero tore his intense gaze away from her. He shrugged off his jacket, and draped it across her shoulders. Relena smiled, immediately feeling the warmth of the pre-heated material spreading through her body.

"Here," he said, rather softly. Relena inhaled deeply, she could smell the alluring, musky scent of his cologne, still lingering and clinging onto the clothing. "I don't know why you're dressed in only that," he gestured to her small, silken negligee, and the light dressing gown barely wrapped around her body, and made a soft grunting sound, "but you must be cold."

Smiling, Relena turned to him, and in a gentle voice, whispered, "Thanks, Heero."

Heero shook his head, dismissively, and laying his hand on her back, he guided her in front of him, and towards, what seemed to be, the direction of the hotel.

After a few minutes silence, Relena eventually decided to voice her thoughts.

"Why are you doing this?"

Heero, looking perplexed by her impulsive outburst, glanced towards her as he brushed a heavy branch of leaves away from his face. "Doing what?"

Relena sighed. Staring ahead, she could see the lights of the grand hotel, looming in the near distance. "Doing this; being so nice to me."

Heero shrugged, unsure of an answer to her question. "Would you rather I not?"

Relena scoffed, glaring at him steadily, before replying, "Don't turn the tables, Heero. Of course I prefer you like this, well, in comparison to the callous, egotistical jerk that you transform into more often than I'd wish. You're like some modern day version of Jekyll and Hyde."

"Apart from the fact that I don't have Schizophrenia." He added.

"Well … so you say."

Heero rolled his eyes. "I don't have any mental disorders, Relena."

Relena released a short breath of air, "I'm not too sure about that. But that's besides the point. Now, answer my question, Heero Yuy, why are you being so nice to me?"

Heero opened his mouth to retort, but Relena hastily cut him off with another warning, "And no dodging the bullet."

A smirk crept onto Heero's face, erasing his brooding appearance as he replied, "But that's what I'm best at."

Laughing, Relena playfully shoved the unsuspecting boy, and he unceremoniously stumbled into a bush.

"Just answer the damned question!"

Heero clambered out of the shrubbery, dusting off his shirt with the back of his hand, "This was my good shirt."

"Do you really care?" Relena teased.

"No." It was a short answer. But it was the truth; Heero had never cared much for clothing; Nicola bought all of his good clothes. He preferred loose cargos and his wife-beater, both of which provided him ease of movement; good for unsuspecting situations, like now. He frowned down at his dark blue shirt – the one that Nikki said matched his eyes – and dark jeans, slightly faded for a 'worn' effect.

"_They're fashionable, Heero." Nikki had told him, "and besides, they make you look sexy." _

"Heero!" Relena cried.

"What?" he snapped, confused by her outburst

"Answer!"

"I don't know, Relena. Truthfully, I don't. I just think that it's about time that we put the past behind us."

Relena nodded, in silent agreement, and then smiled up at him, "Okay."

"Good. We should be getting back, they're probably wondering where we are."

----------------------------------

Duo stormed down the hallway in a furious rage, a gust of wind tailing his every move. How could Wufei be so foolish? Was he really willing to risk so many lives just to save his own damned pride?

He exhaled sharply, disgusted. Well, he wasn't about to sit back and watch the people he loved get massacred; he may have been the God of Death in his earlier years, but now … now he had a beautiful wife and unborn child to look out for. And nothing was going to stand in his way … not even Wufei's arrogance.

As he neared the door to his room, his rage somewhat faded, and breathing in deeply he prepared himself for whatever mood that Hilde could be in. He loved her pregnancy, it was probably the best thing that had happened to him since their marriage, but sometimes her mood swings were just to whacko for even him to be able to cope with.

Sliding the plastic card key into the alleged slot, he waited until the small LED flickered green before pressing down the metal handle. The door creaked as it swung open, and Duo poked his head inside.

Empty.

He frowned, confused by the barrenness, and moved towards the bed, tossing his jacket onto a chair in the process. Glancing around, he noticed the small glimmer of yellow light, leaking out from crack of the slightly ajar bathroom door and realising that Hilde must have been bathing; he relaxed.

"Hilde, babe, are you in there?" He called, throwing himself onto the downy bedcover and tucking his hands behind his neck as he gazed up at the ceiling.

No response.

He tilted his head to the side, staring at the half-opened, white door.

"Hilde?" He asked his tone more cautious and wary than before. His heart pace was quickening to a rapid pace, the blood pounding in his veins and his breaths were becoming haste and short as he sat up on the bed.

He moved slowly towards the bathroom, noting, once again, that the door was ajar. Why would she bathe with the door open? Duo mused, silently.

Upon reaching the door, he pushed it open and instantly an icy breezed gushed past him, chilling his bare arms and causing small bumps to rise on his arms and his hairs to stand on end.

The only thing that he could hear amidst the eerie silence was the heavy thud of his heart, echoing as it thumped against his ribcage. As he took one-step inside, the cold callously greeted him and he shuddered. Surely, Hilde wouldn't bathe in such cold conditions, he thought before his eyes caught an odd sight out of the corner of his eye. The intricately designed, misted window was lying wide open, inviting the bitter wind inside with open arms.

He trailed his eyes across the room, to where he knew the bathtub would be, but as his eyes captured the view in front of him, he gasped, starting backwards with a few paced steps, before freezing in shock.

Nothing could have prepared him for the sight that was before his eyes. A weak, muffled sound broke out from his lips as he came to life again, his immediate reaction to the scene causing him to fling his body towards his deathly pale wife.

Hilde's naked, fragile body was submerged below the surface of the water, her head propped up against the edge and lolled backwards in an awkward fashion. The water surrounding her was tainted a crimson red, murky streams of blood running from her body, but even that wasn't enough to drown out the hauntingly, pale blue hue to her usually flawless skin.

Duo thrust his hands into the white ceramic bath and was mildly surprised to find that the swirling red liquid was still lukewarm; he clambered recklessly into the bath and fished the top half of her exposed body out of the water, resting it fully against the side of the bath, whilst her legs still dangled lifelessly in the water.

His heart was hammering as his hand cupped her pallid, cold face and his thumb caressed her cheek gently; his fingers rubbing over her dry blue lips before the iciness of her skin propelled him into action. He glided his hand along her soft arm and down to her fingers, where they grazed against her wrist, but as he was searching for her pulse, a soft sticky substance distracted him from doing so. His eyes quickly dived down to the scene, his breath catching in his throat as he watched his fingers shake, uncontrollably, each one covered with Hilde's sickeningly red blood.

His head spun, and he found himself gasping for breaths … for control … he grasped out, pulling Hilde's body to his, before the world blackened before him and he tumbled to the floor, unconscious.

* * *

'_...love from one being to another can only be that two solitudes come nearer, recognize and protect and comfort each other.'__ -- Han Suyin (Elizabeth Comber)_

'_Hatred ever kills, love never dies. Such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality, for it increases hatred.' -- __'Mohandas K. Gandhi_

**A/N** - Hey there. So terribly, terribly sorry for the delay, but this chapter was_ pretty _hard to write; I just couldn't think of how to set it out for some reason. However, even though it _was_ a struggle, I'm pretty proud of it. (smiles) Yup yup; I am.

So yeahh, how long has it been? Four months? Give or take a few. Eeeeeep, I'm so sorry! But to make up for it … I made this chapter extra long.

Anyways, yeaaah. Review and I'll update the next super fast. I already have the plot of it set out and a few ideas in my head. Oh … and the ending of BLaH. Yep … I know how it's going to end … heehee. Give me cake and I might consider spilling the secret (grins).

Love you guys more than you know!

Allura


	19. Darkest Hour

**Between Love and Hate**

Allura: smiling,_ "Ye of so little faith!"_

**In the Previous Chapter:**

_Duo thrust his hands into the white ceramic bath and was mildly surprised to find that the swirling red liquid was still lukewarm; he clambered recklessly into the bath and fished the top half of her exposed body out of the water, resting it fully against the side of the bath, whilst her legs still dangled lifelessly in the water._

_His heart was hammering as his hand cupped her pallid, cold face and his thumb caressed her cheek gently; his fingers rubbing over her dry blue lips before the iciness of her skin propelled him into action. He glided his hand along her soft arm and down to her fingers, where they grazed against her wrist, but as he was searching for her pulse, a soft sticky substance distracted him from doing so. His eyes quickly dived down to the scene, his breath catching in his throat as he watched his fingers shake, uncontrollably, each one covered with Hilde's sickeningly red blood. _

_His head spun, and he found himself gasping for breaths … for control … he grasped out, pulling Hilde's body to his, before the world blackened before him and he tumbled to the floor, unconscious._

**Chapter eighteen: Darkest Hour **

Quatre scrambled out from the twisted covers of the warm downy duvet, and flinging his legs over the side of the bed, he sunk his head into his hands and panted heavily, trying to regain his breath. Small beads of sweat trickled down his forehead. He could feel the thin cotton sheets that lined the bed, sticking to his damp skin and he shifted on the mattress, feeling uncomfortable.

His heart felt as though someone had seized it in a stringent grasp, and the pain that it sent coursing throughout his trembling body was unbearable … unreal.

Something was wrong, he knew it; he felt it … somewhere, nearby, something was _very _wrong. Breathing in deeply and trying to ignore the irksome, stabbing sensation in his chest, he stood, grabbing his black slacks that he had flung over the edge of the hotel room's chair, and pulling them on before fondling around in the dark, in search of his shirt.

"… Quatre?" Dorothy mumbled from under her covers. Quatre leant over the bed, towards her and whispered quietly in her ear.

"It's okay, darling, I'm just going to check on something. I'll be back in a few minutes," he told her soothingly, before searching for his shirt again.

He soon found it, in a discarded heap at the end of the bed and shrugged into it, leaving the last few buttons unfixed in his haste before darting out into the dim, quiet corridor. He stood motionless, only his rough breaths and the sound of the wind whistling against the windows disturbing the eerie silence. Quatre frowned. Where was everybody? He hadn't slept for that long … had he? The vast, quiet barrenness was unnatural and foreboding as it surrounded him in a dense, heavy fog.

Quatre swept his mind … there had been something that he'd meant to do … something about last night. About an argument between Wufei and … Duo!

He spun on his heel, his mind reeling; hopefully Duo hadn't done anything irrational. He was calm, usually a composed man, but when pushed, he had a fierce temper to rival that of Zechs'.

And last night, Wufei had definitely been pushing him.

----------------------------------

The sounds of police radio's, buzzing voices and clicking camera's filled the air around Private Detective Nick Caine as he carefully made his way over the yellow police tape and towards the scene of the crime.

"Nick!" His alert eyes drifted towards the woman calling his name. Crime Scene Investigator Danielle Lewis stood at the far edge of the cliff, waving a hand in the air and gesturing for him to follow her. The sun rising behind the dark haired woman made it hard to distinguish her form, but Nick could determine her lean body and the black waistcoat lined with reflective tape that she had donned.

He made his way over to her, averting the bustling officers pacing to and from the scene.

"Look at this," Danielle told him as he arrived at her side, Nick stared at her in awe; even at the ungodly hour of five in the morning, the girl still managed to look fresh-faced and fully awake.

He studied the object that she held in her gloved hand.

"It's a passport," Danielle stated.

Nick raised an eyebrow, responding with a blunt, "I can see that." Danielle smirked at him.

"It's good to see that you're still the same cynical man that I first met. It's nice to know that some things will never change." Danielle stated, quietly, before suddenly turning serious, "As you can see," she flipped open the cover to the soggy passport, "it's been severely damaged; almost beyond recognition. But I had one of the guys here from the labs study it a while ago, and he was able to pick a few bits of vital information from it."

"Okay …" Nick said, urging her to continue.

"Her first name's Nicola, her place of birth is Malaga, Andalucia and she's nineteen years old."

"Andalucia … as in, Spain?" Nick enquired.

"Yep."

"Well … that's just great." He scratched the back of his neck uneasily, "Could you get that sent to the labs for further analysis and investigation, along with the other articles that were found?"

Danielle nodded, still staring at the passport. "You know, from what I can see, she kind of resembles that Spanish model. The new one, who's taken off really well in Europe, she's even been featured on the cover of Vogue a few times."

Nick raised his eyebrow again, "Unless she's a page three girl, or featured in any of the GQ magazines, I really wouldn't know." He said, honestly, and Danielle laughed lightly at his comment.

"Well, I'll go get these sent to the labs, but there's a guy around here that wants to speak to you … see there," she pointed towards a tall man in a tan leather jacket standing close to a police car, "He's sergeant James Patterson, and I think he just got hold of some pretty crucial information."

Nick thanked her and followed her direction to the other man.

"Sergeant Patterson?" He greeted. The other man turned around, looking extremely tired, before he placed his cup of what looked to be coffee, on the bonnet of the car.

"You must be Private Detective Caine." He responded, smiling kindly. "We've been doing some research onto the whereabouts of the owner of the vehicle. If it's not a stolen car, I think this guy may be able to help us out." He handed him a report, consisting on a few pages of printed-paper.

Nick took it from him and turned it back and forth, before reading the name at the top of the file.

"Heero Yuy." He mused aloud, "These pages all you got on him?" He asked, waving the report slightly and frowning.

"Yes, unfortunately, he is one tough guy to get information on. However, we've managed to summon up his whereabouts from someone that he works for." Patterson handed him another sheet of paper. "You can find him somewhere around here."

Nick stared at the piece of paper. It was a map and around the bottom, a red marked circle was outlining a reasonable area of land.

"That's a pretty vast estimation." Nick remarked. Patterson shrugged helplessly.

"That's the best that I can do. Good luck, oh and Danielle said that she wanted to go with you. So you might want to talk to her first."

Nick sighed. Heero Yuy, he thought … where _are_ you?

----------------------------------

"Have you ever felt like you're being watched?" Relena suddenly asked, as the cracked planes of the glass entrance doors came into view.

Heero stopped and stared at her, blankly.

"No?" she continued, "I was just wondering because-"

Heero cut her off, "Yes." He blinked, "I have, why?"

Ignoring his question, Relena continued, "It's an unnerving feeling, isn't it? Lately, I've been feeling it a little too often, almost as if I'm constantly under observation."

Heero scoffed, "With all that's been going on lately, I wouldn't doubt it."

"That's why I followed him," she stated, casting her eyes to the pebbled grounds beneath her feet and progressing towards the doors. "I felt that he was watching me. However, when I eventually found him, he seemed as shocked as I was at the encounter."

Shrugging, Heero dismissed her comment, "Probably just paranoia. Now hurry, we have an early rise tomorrow, and with everything that's going ton, I'm sure you're tired." He walked inside the building, feeling a cold draft follow him in. A foreboding chill bit at his spine and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, erect, but he brushed the feeling away and ushered Relena inside.

---------------------------------

Although it was already partly open, the door creaked under the pressure of his hand and as it swung ajar, a cold gush of stale air flooded past him, tugging stray strands of his hair as it did so.

His anxious eyes scarred the bedroom cautiously, before he finally stepped in and as his eyes caught sight of the yellow glimmer of light, protruding from the crack beneath the bathroom suite door, he called out to his friends.

"Duo … Hilde …?"

Frowning, Quatre stood still for a few more moments … "Duo, are you there? … _Hilde_?"

Silence was his only answer, until suddenly, there was a quiet rustling and for a brief second, he could see a shadowed movement from behind the closed door. Quatre spun around quickly, eyeing the room for a weapon of some sorts. His eyes eventually fell upon a table lamp; he swept it up, pulling it gently from the socket. Holding both the cord and stem of the lamp in his hands, he crept cautiously towards the door.

Holding the lamp hovering over his shoulder, he positioned it so that he could easily strike and with his right foot, swiftly kicked the door open. He jumped into the room, ready to attack, when he was greeted with the sight of a crouched Duo, embracing a limp, exposed body in his arms.

A crash resounded throughout the room as the lamp plummeted to the floor, the bulb smashing into thousands of miniscule shards and merging with the puddles of water, which were drenching the room. His breath caught in the back of his throat and his eyes widened as he stepped back, "Oh God, Duo …" He forced out; throat unexpectedly dry, staring at the braided boy whose dull eyes were gazing blankly towards the back wall, unfocused. "What happened?"

Duo, rocking gently back and forth, still cradling Hilde in his hands, ignored Quatre's bewildered question.

The wind sweeping in through the open window was chilling his body and lungs as he breathed in the stale smell of blood and soap. An odd mixture. Quatre, grabbing the closest towel, which was hung on a bracket at the back of the door, quickly threw the towel over Hilde's body, taking another step backwards, as his head spun, dizzily.

Duo, not even noticing his actions, continued to rock on his heels, his limbs shaking uncontrollably.

Quatre breathed in sharply, suddenly finding it difficult to pass air into his lungs, before choking and stumbling out of the room in shock.

---------------------------------

The silence was awkward and tense as her eyes fastened determinedly on the glowing number display, atop the chrome metal doors.

… Three … She shifted uneasily, the eerie sullenness a burdened weight upon her shoulders.

… Two … She chanced a furtive glance towards the brooding brunet beside her. Heero leant coolly against the shadowed wall, his arms crossed at his chest and his sharp eyes glaring at the opposing wall.

… One … Her eyes veered back to the elevator display, wordlessly pleading for it's presence. A heavy feeling in her chest impaired her breathing habit but as soon as Relena opened her mouth to break the silence, the elevator doors pinged open in front of her.

She felt a rapid rush of fear flow through her veins as she stared at the open door, leading to the ornately designed elevator. Her pale reflection in the glass mirror at the back stared back at her and she hesitantly cast an unsure look at Heero. Couldn't they just take the stairs?

Heero nodded his head tersely at her, and she moved inside, trying her best to keep her claustrophobia beneath the surface. Stepping close to the end wall, and grasping onto the gold plated handrail with white knuckles, she waited as Heero punched the buttons for their floor.

After a few seconds, the elevator shook gently and Relena felt the odd feeling of moving vertically, but not knowing which way she was going … up or down. It was such a strange sensation. Relena stared at her feet, watching how the plush red carpet, covering the floor of the elevator moved when she shifted her feet.

A sudden creaking and jerking brought her out of her trance and she looked up at Heero, a haze of confusion shading her eyes as the lift shuddered to a stop.

" … Heero, what …?" She stared at his hand, which was resting on a small button that had been hidden beneath a metal screen under the elevator's dials before flicking her eyes up to the lift's display. She noted that they were currently hovering somewhere in between levels three and four.

"You … jammed the elevator." She squeaked, her throat suddenly tight and dry.

"I did." Heero agreed, impassively.

"You … but, why?" Her hands were starting to shake and she quickly hid them behind her back, unwilling to allow Heero to find out about this certain weakness. She could defeat it. The feeling would pass soon enough.

Oh God, she thought, was it just her, or was the elevator … swaying? Oh, dear God!

"Because," Heero answered, slowly sliding the cover of the compartment back into place. Relena faintly wondered how he had managed to unscrew the bolt to the screen without her noticing. "We needed to talk."

Relena blinked. "We needed to _talk_?" she exclaimed, trying to restrain her hysteria. She _was not _going to die … she was not. "And you couldn't have chosen a more suitable place?"

Heero shook his head. "What's more suitable than an elevator?" He asked, looking around, "We have … privacy, no interruptions, and oh, you can't escape this time." He smirked.

"Well, you've got that right." Relena whispered, her head swiftly moving around, and her eyes darting everywhere, trying to find some way out of this terrible contraption. Who ever invented these things anyway? Floating boxes … hovering between floors with nothing sturdy to balance them but the reliance of a rope.

Heero frowned at her, but decided to brush off her strange actions. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "So how do you know this Matthew guy?"

Relena, groaned, frustrated. She didn't need this right now. In fact, resurrecting her memories with Matthew was the last thing that she wanted to do. "I already told you, I dated him for a while."

"A while?" He drawled, arching a cynical eyebrow.

"A while! Yes, Heero. Now if you're done with your grilling, could you please fix that thing so that we can get out of here?" She asked, trying to make her voice sound forceful and angry, rather than the weak nervousness that she was really feeling.

Heero stared at her. "No. I'm not finished yet."

Relena bit her lip. How many books had she read where elevators jam, and then suddenly plummet down their shaft, carrying its inhabitants with it to a gruesome death? Too many, she mused. Her breathing was fast becoming infrequent and erratic and her vision was starting to blur in front of her, despite her efforts to stay calm.

"Who is he?"

Shaking her head, Relena focused on Heero, keeping her eyes glued to his Prussian blues.

"You have really nice eyes." She commented, before realising what she had said and visibly blushing.

A faint smile crossed Heero's lips before he frowned at her again. "Don't evade the question, Relena. I want out of here just as soon as you do. I mean, do you really think that I want to be stuck in an elevator with you?"

Relena's jaw dropped, "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm just saying that around me, you're the least pleasant person to talk to. With all your biting comments and snide remarks."

Laughing, Relena momentarily forgot her fear of enclosed spaces, "_I'm_ the least pleasant person to talk to? Heero, I highly doubt that a conversation with you would be in the slightest bit charming. And where do you get off? You come back here, after having disappeared for three years, and expect me to be_ nice_ to you?"

"Well … why shouldn't I?" Heero retorted, angrily, "I didn't lose you your job, after all."

"Oh please, I tried to apologize for that earlier this week, but you threw it back in my face!" Relena cried, "It wasn't as if you enjoyed it anyway."

Heero scoffed lightly, "It was work, Relena. It's not there for enjoyment."

"Yes, but you act as if you really liked your job as my guard, when in fact, I know that it was the exact opposite. Don't you remember how much you complained to Une after she hired you for the position? I faintly recall you adamantly demanding that you be removed from the post immediately." She stepped forwards, and the elevator creaked quietly. Freezing, her fear suddenly ripped at her mind again, and all of her anger drained from her body.

"That was for entirely different reasons." Heero stated, calmer now, as he leant back against a mirrored wall of the elevator. It groaned again under the pressure of the movement, but Heero remained unperturbed.

"Then why?" Trying to ignore her instinct that was to curl up into a foetal position in the corner and cry until she was removed from the lift.

"The reasons are irrelevant right now, what is relevant, however, is who that Matthew guy is." He crossed his arms over his chest, signalling to Relena that he was resolute in getting his answers.

"He's a politician. I met him through a work colleague, at a conference." She paused to stare at Heero … what else did she really know about Matthew. Strangely, for being with the man for a year, she knew very little about him.

"And …" He pressed.

Relena shrugged. "We split up." She lied.

Heero's eyes narrowed, "Relena, I need more information than that! This is for your own protection."

Relena breathed in deeply, feeling a nagging urge to gain more oxygen into her lungs, but it seemed that their supply was running out. This fact and Heero's relentlessness sent her into a state of frenzied panic, and she released it in the form of anger upon the unsuspecting Heero.

"Why would you care? You're_ not_ my bodyguard anymore! There's no _need_ for you to _pretend_ to care about my protection, so give up the act, and _let me out_!" She all but screamed at him.

Heero was in front of her in seconds, and this time, because of the sudden proximity, Relena didn't notice the cart rocking slightly, she was too busy pressing herself into the back wall, attempting to put a greater distance between the two.

He was so close that she could feel the swift rise and fall of his chest, the warmth of his hot breath skimming against her cheek and the intensity of his dark eyes as they bore straight into her, with a raging passion.

"Because," he started, his voice calmer than what she had anticipated, "contrary to popular belief; I _do_ care."

Before she had a chance to reply, his head had swooped down, sealing the statement with his lips as he pulled her into a desperate, intense kiss that had both her mind and heart racing. His hands enclosing both the sides of her face, hot and strangely surreal as she hastily looped her arms around his neck, wanting … _needing_ more. Her anxious fingers threaded through the soft locks of hair at the crook of his neck as his hands moved slowly down her body, eventually clasping around her waist. Relena released a gasp of surprise as he roughly tugged at her, attempting to bring her as close to him as possible, her body pressed tightly against his.

He pulled away, tipping his head back slightly and seemingly searching her face for something with an unfathomable expression. Blinking a few times, he suddenly grinned down at her, the passion in his eyes truly intoxicating, before his lips collided against hers.

Relena moaned as his strong hand slipped around to her back and began to caress the skin there, in perfect, tender circles. Her hands slid underneath his shirt, tugging it up slightly as they explored the contours of his chiselled abdominal muscles.

Relena's back swiftly collided with the cool metal of the elevator wall.

The world seemed to be spinning, shattering, crumbling beneath her feet …

_Cree-eeak!_

She felt Heero freeze, his hold on her becoming rigid and tensed, as her eyes snapped open, pupils dilated in panic.

The elevator screeched noisily again, dropping down slightly before beginning to rise again, the levitating feeling once again greeting her stomach with its strange presence.

"Damn it," Heero growled, shoving his dark hair back out of his eyes, which, when they caught hers, Relena noticed were darker than she had ever seen them and brimming with unbridled lust.

Letting go of her, he took a few steps backwards as the lift pinged and they came to a stop. The doors drew open, and it seemed to Relena, as though everything was suddenly pulled back into a slower motion.

Trowa stared at them; his face ashen and emerald green eyes wide with something akin to shock. They flickered from her to Heero before blank shutters were abruptly drawn across and she could no longer read anything beneath their murky surface.

His mouth opened slowly, and he mimed something that she could neither catch nor comprehend, as if her mind had stopped functioning altogether.

Beside her, Heero jumped to attention, his usual, lazy grin wiped from his face immediately and his eyes wild and alert. Words left his mouth, but they too, were lost to her misunderstanding, and then suddenly, the two men were darting off down the dark, dimly lit corridors.

Relena, shaking herself from the stupor, stared after them, watching as life sped up to its usual pace once again.

Hilde … she thought, remembering the one word that had stood out to her from the conversation. Her chest constricted painfully, the cardigan in her hand loosely fell to the floor beneath her feet and then she ran.

---------------------------------

Running as fast as his legs could possibly allow him, his breaths rapid and uneven, Wufei bolted around the corner of the corridor, pushing against the thick heavy air that swept around his body. The haste of his movements stimulated a wind against his face and his ebony black hair whipped backwards and away from his face.

It was all his fault. He was so stupid … stupid, stupid, _stupid_! He should have listened to him … he should have listened to Duo …

"_This is all the proof we need!" His voice was sharp and ragged, the harshness signalling his fatigue. "This place is dangerous, they know where we are. We need to leave. NOW."_

"_Duo, calm down. They'll be expecting that. It's safer if we stay here and prepare to fight." Wufei retorted, anything but calm himself._

"_Fight?" Duo cried, "With WHAT exactly? We have NO weapons, and I refuse to sit back and watch them eliminate us, like they did these people …" His arms widened as he gestured to the masses of bodies around him. "These innocents were slaughtered tonight, Wufei. We're leaving!"_

_Wufei shook his head, scornfully. "No," he replied, his tone resolute, "We _stay_."_

If he had just listened to him, if they had just left … None of this would have happened. Wufei scowled, still pacing down the corridor. His energy was draining quickly. If only he hadn't been so damned prideful.

_345 … 347 … 349 … _His eyes scanned the golden number plates, fastened to each door.

… _351 …_

This was it. He skidded to a halt, the golden 353 glimmered at him from the side of his eye, but he wasn't paying attention. His fisted hands were already hammering on the wooden exterior to the oaken door, beating violently into the grain. Continuously hammering … they _needed_ help … needed help _now_. His breaths were erratic, short and lacking in the oxygen that he needed so desperately.

His torso slumped against the door, his fists still thrashing as the door swung backwards. He collapsed; his energy dispersed, and fell to his knees, staring at Sally, his vision a blurred haze.

Sally frowned at him, concern tracing the eyes of her alert yet tired face, "Wufei?"

"Come … Hilde …" Wufei breathed out, closing his eyes as the world darkened. It was all his fault.

Before he blacked out, the faint sound of sirens ringing through the air, greeted his ears with a somewhat reassuring comfort.

---------------------------------

The place brought back too many familiar memories. The stringent, acrid smell of disinfectant and stale air, the high-gloss linoleum that shimmered beneath the stark white lights, that hung in large frames from the ceiling. And of course, the agitated anxiety that plummeted through their nervous systems.

Quatre watched, dazedly, as Wufei paced up and down the corridor. Five steps, pivot, and then back again. His head was cast down to the floor, where he could make out his blurred, hazy reflection.

Trowa, leaning against the opposite wall, ran restless fingers through his cinnamon locks as he tipped his head backwards, staring at the white ceiling.

Heero sat down on one of the plastic blue chairs that lined the halls, his body unnaturally slouched forwards as he propped his chin up with his arm, which was balanced on his knee. His eyes looked weary and exhausted as they flitted back and forth between the unresponsive Duo and the curtained windows of another ward.

But Duo still hadn't budged from his position, Heero didn't doubt that the guy would stop blinking if he could … stop breathing. That was why he had to keep an eye on him. He wouldn't see a doctor, he wouldn't move from the spot until he seen Hilde again, he had declared previously. The doctor had shaken his head, staring at the dishevelled boy in front of him. Because, in his eyes, that's all Duo really was; a boy.

"_He's in shock. Post-traumatic shock," the Doctor had told Heero. "He needs to be seen to. The condition that he's in is very serious."_

_Heero ruffled the hair at the top of his head; scrunching it up in his fingers before dropping his arm. The hair continued to stick up, in an unruly fashion._

_He stared at Duo, who had been in a trance ever since the security guards had pried him away from Hilde, yelling, kicking and screaming, so that they could move her to the operating theatre. He sure had put on a scene. Had the situation not been so dire, he might have found it amusing, considering that they had needed to call upon eight well-built guards to keep him under control._

_Heero shook his head. "He won't move. Give him some time."_

_The Doctor stared at him, condescendingly, "Look, sir, I understand that his wife has just been taken into the O.R.-"_

"_And his unborn child."_

"_Yes," the doctor agreed, "But his situation is just as serious as hers."_

_Sighing, Heero shook his head again, "You could try, but I'm telling you that the love that he holds for his family, will ensure that you won't be able to move him an inch."_

And he had been right. They hadn't been able to budge him, and finally, the doctor had given up, and told Heero to keep an eye on him.

It had been five hours that they had been sitting there, and nobody had even seen Duo flinch when spoken to. Eventually, they had just let him be, keeping their words of comfort to themselves.

Relena, sitting next to where Trowa was seated, hiccupped, her chest shuddering as she attempted to control her relentless tears. She dabbed her tissue underneath her eyes again, and continued to stare at the wall. Her whole body was shaking, and she just couldn't help but let her mind drift back to the earlier scene. She visualised Hilde's frail, pallid body … the crude gashes on her wrists … her icy cold skin, her blue lips.

She broke down again. Her whole body contracted as a fresh wave of sobs overtook her body. Trowa was kneeling in front of her in seconds, his kind, yet drained emerald orbs piercing into her own with so much concern. It was overwhelming. Her body heaved again.

Trowa pulled her forwards, and into his arms, and she came, willingly, resting her head upon his shoulder as she continued to cry.

"Shh …" He whispered into her ear, soothingly, as he caressed her arms with his fingers, whilst trying to remain balanced.

Relena sniffled, her sobs easing out and eventually she relaxed in his arms. After a few minutes, she felt someone's gaze boring into her, she turned her head to the other side, and caught Heero's gaze. His eyes were sharp, holding an emotion that she couldn't quite distinguish. They narrowed before he turned away, picking up a newspaper from the chair beside him.

Relena shuddered, the tension between them had dramatically increased since their tryst in the elevator, and they were barely able to meet each others gazes, instead opting to avoid eye contact and distance themselves from the other as much as possible.

She flitted her eyes towards Quatre, who still looked traumatised; his hand tightly interlaced with Dorothy's and his knuckles white from the pressure of his grip.

She was about to say something to him, something consoling, but as soon as she opened her mouth to say something, a doctor purposely strode down the hall, stopping in front of them.

"Mister Maxwell?" He asked, his gaze scanning along each of them.

Duo, torn from his daze, immediately leapt to his feet, Heero swiftly following his actions. Duo's knees buckled beneath him, under the sudden strain and Heero hands immediately darted out to his shoulders, securing his friend.

"That's … me." Duo croaked; voice dry and hoarse from lack of use.

The older doctor wore green overalls, which Heero recognised as the ones worn by surgeons, from his earlier years, were he was constantly being dragged into hospitals – against his own will – for major operations, due to his war wounds. The surgeon nodded, before proceeding, with a hesitant smile, "Your wife is going to be fine-"

Duo nearly collapsed again, with relief, and Heero tightened his grasp.

"And the baby?" He interrupted.

The doctor smiled again, this time more genuinely, "Will also be fine. However, we would like to keep her here for a week or so, until she fully stabilises. She has lost a lot of blood, and she could easily still fall into a coma, but her statistics at the moment are looking bright, and we're hoping for a steady recovery."

Duo blinked and the nodded, "Can I see her?"

"Yes, but I have to warn you that she hasn't woken yet since the operation, and we don't expect her to for another few days."

"That's fine," Duo answered, hastily, already trying to shove Heero off him and make his way towards the door.

The surgeon grabbed Heero's shoulder as Duo moved towards the ward. "She still looks a bit … unstable. I assure you that she's fine, but if the girls …" he gestured his head towards Relena and Dorothy, "are still slightly shaken … maybe you shouldn't-"

"We're fine doctor," Relena said, prying herself from Trowa and standing up.

The surgeon nodded, "Okay then … go right ahead."

Heero watched as Relena followed Duo into the room, still shaking slightly. He frowned, worriedly, wondering whether she would be okay. He stepped aside as everyone else but Wufei entered the room before signalling for him also, to go ahead.

Wufei stared at him, but when Heero turned fully towards the dark-haired man, he realised that he wasn't staring at him at all, but past his shoulder.

Turning, Heero sought out what he was looking at, and creased his forehead in confusion. Now what?

"Heero Yuy?" Heero glared at the man.

"That's me."

The man dug within his inside pocket, before motioning to the girl beside him, "This is Danielle Lewis from the CSI unit, and I'm Private Detective Nick Caine." Finding what he was looking for, Nick Caine pulled out a leather cover and flashed him the gold badge that was concealed beneath the flaps. "May I have a quick word?"

Heero glanced back at Wufei, who shrugged, looking just as confused as him. He sighed; they were probably going to question him on the scene at the hotel, considering Duo wasn't in the right state of mind to be making any statements.

"Yes." He answered monotonously. Caine nodded solemnly, before signalling to the small room at the end of the hall. Heero acquiesced and followed both him and the CSI agent into the room, unbeknownst to the interrogation that he was about to undertake.

* * *

'… _Love from one being to another can only be that two solitudes come nearer, recognize and protect and comfort each other.' -- _Han Suyin Elizabeth Comber 

**A/N** – EVENTUALLY! I know, it _has _been ages, but if you read my note, I'm sure you'll understand why. Also, to make up for it, this chapter is considerably longer than all the others (beams) yay!

I have to thank Pam for helping me with this chapter, and reading over it for me. Thank you!

Also, if you, too, would like to pre-read chapters before I post and make brief comments on the work, please contact me, I would LOVE your help.

This chapter is dedicated to you, **yes YOU**, My reader … for basically just reading this, and giving support, even though I've been awful with updates. I'm just letting you know, that every one of you, reading this chapter right now, means the world to me, regardless of whether you have reviewed before or not.

Although, reviews would be nice (grins) especially ones that don't merely consist of one liners lol.

But anyways … THANK YOU FOR READING, darlings.

And I hope to update soon.

P.S. I haven't had time to go over this much, as I wanted to post it ASAP. However, I did check it a few times. But if you do find any mistakes or errors anywhere, please do tell. Thanks.


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